A Brooklyn-based creative director is suing Kanye West’s Yeezy Inc. for $110,000 after he failed to pay her for a last-minute photo shoot.
The shutterbug took snaps of the embattled rapper on September 13th, with plans for the rapper to have the marketing images for New York Fashion Week.
According to a lawsuit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court on Wednesday, December 7th and obtained by AllHipHop.com, Katelyn Mooney was contacted by someone from Ye’s staff and asked to shoot his new designer sunglasses called SHDZ, a few weeks before his antisemitic and anti-Black comments went viral and caused him to drop from Forbes billionaire’s list.
The federal lawsuit alleges Ye and Mooney discussed the basic terms of the agreement over text message and “confirmed that Ms. Mooney would be retained for a fee of One Hundred Ten Thousand Dollars ($110,000). Ms. Mooney was to be fully responsible for every aspect of the photo shoot, including but not limited to hiring models, reserving studio space, procuring lighting, catering, pre-production, and post-production.”
Lawyers for Mooney assert that on September 14th, she “delivered the final digital files and hard drive as agreed, completing her responsibilities under the agreement.
Yeezy had no issues with Ms. Mooney’s work or the final delivered product,” and two weeks later she submitted an invoice for $110,000 and her W9.
To date, Ye has only paid her $15,000. As a result, Mooney is suffering serious financial hardships.
“Ms. Mooney is a freelancer and mother of three: due to Yeezy’s failure to timely pay her, she has had to take out a significant loan and max out her credit cards just to cover her rent and other bills,” her lawyer Andrew Gerber said.
“Yeezy’s failure to timely pay her has forced her to incur significant debt in order to pay her rent and bills and support her three children,” Gerber added.
Mooney is seeking $110,250 in statutory damages.