Is Kanye West missing? Where has the rapper gone - lawsuit with former business manager explained

Kanye West, who legally changed his name to Ye in 2021, has been described as “missing”, with news that his ex-business manager has been unable to locate him amid an ongoing lawsuit against the rapper and his company, Yeezy.

In recent months, West has been at the heart of a number of controversies, including making antisemitic remarks online and in interviews, allegedly showing explicit photos of ex-wife Kim Kardashian to Adidas staff and claiming that George Floyd, a Black man who died after police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for nine minutes, actually died from a fentanyl overdose, despite medical examiner evidence to the contrary.

This is what you need to know about the current situation.

Is Kanye West missing?

According to a court filing obtained by the US Sun, West’s former business manager, Thomas St John, is seeking for an extension to serve West and his company, Yeezy LLC, court documents following multiple failed attempts to contact the musician.

St John and his attorneys are requesting that time be extended until the end of March 2023. As it stands, a scheduled case management conference has been set for April 2023.

It’s thought that St John is having difficulties locating West due to the fact that he does not have an attorney.

The court filing stated: “We were advised about a new law firm for defendants, but not a specific point of contact. We subsequently learned of information in the news that the law firm identified as new counsel was not affiliated with the defendants. Accordingly, we have not been able to serve defendants through their counsel. As a general matter, we have had difficulty confirming the best current address of Kanye West.”

It continued: “For Mr. West, despite our diligent efforts, we were unable to ascertain his current residential address, and therefore, have not yet made attempts to serve him personally. Instead, we have attempted to service him by mail at multiple possible addresses.”

According to the document, attempts were made to serve West at “three separate addresses” in California, Malibu and Calabasas.

What’s the lawsuit about?

In St John’s lawsuit against West, he claimed that he was not paid for an 18 month guaranteed term working as the rapper’s senior financial advisor and Chief Financial Officer. Court documents claim that St John was supposed to be paid $300k per month, but even though he only worked for three months, he was not paid.

In January 2022, the complaint claimed that West had become “heated and aggressive” with St John, and had “screamed” at him, stating that he didn’t want to work with him any more.

The lawsuit said: “When confronted by the 18-month commitment that had just been made, Mr. West stated words to the effect of ‘The 18-month term was bulls**t’ and ‘You’re insane for even thinking I would stick to it.’"

St John sued $4.5 million for damages, including the $900k that he is allegedly owed for his work and the remaining months he was guaranteed, per the contract.