Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, has something even more in common with his sometimes-ally Donald Trump these days: an inclination to rest his eyes in public moments where it’s clear the proceedings aren’t catching his interest. In this case, Ye seemed to court witnesses to be catching some moments of shut-eye Friday while observing and ultimately testifying as a defendant in a trial over his treatment of a contractor at his former Malibu mansion.
Several journalists reporting from the courthouse described Ye being seemingly drowsy, and being willfully forgetful when he was alert, answering “I don’t recall” to dozens of questions.
According to Rolling Stone, Ye “repeatedly yawned, closed his eyes for long stretches, and at times seemed to catch his head falling forward as if dozing while seated on the witness stand.” The publication noted that “the sleepy performance prompted glances among people in the gallery,” pointing out that Ron Zambrano, the attorney for plaintiff Tony Saxon, mouthed to a fellow lawyer at one point, “Is he asleep?”
Courthouse News Service confirmed that Ye “at times appeared to nod off in the small courtroom in downtown Los Angeles as Zambrano quizzed him.”
The testimony produced few details, with Ye giving simple “yes” and “no” answers as well as “I don’t recall.” However, there was at least one amusing moment in which the hip-hop mogul did remember a detail of his encounters with Saxon, who is claiming $1 million in wages and expenses he said he was never paid for his work on an aborted renovation of the historic beachside property in 2021.
Emilie Hagen, who has posted for years about Ye on the Instagram account @kanyesposts, has been delivering her own daily video accounts of attending the trail since jury selection began early last week. On Friday, she took to IG to give her recollection of how testimony unfolded: “Ye is literally sitting there like a statue saying ‘I don’t recall.’ The funniest part is, though, is he did recall something. So, Zambrano, the lawyer, asks, ‘Ye, do you have any memory of taking Tony Saxon to McDonald’s?’ ‘No.’ ‘Do you have any memory of taking Tony Saxon to the hardware store?’ ‘No. ‘Do you have any memory of calling Mr. Saxon when he was on the side of the road and ran out of gas?’ ‘No.’ “
And then, Hagen said, something finally stirred a different answer from Ye: “‘Do you have any memory of Mr. Saxon having a bad body odor?’ ‘Yes.’ So funny — Ye remembers how Tony smelled, but does not remember the McDonald’s trip, drawing him the bath, taking him to the hardware store or running out of gas.”
Ye did speak up at one point to request that the attorney address him simply as “Ye” – which is now his full legal name — noting, “It’s just Ye. No ‘mister.”
The defendant did not stonewall on every question. Asked if he had told Saxon he wanted to convert all the stairways in the house into slides, Ye set the record straight, saying that he only wanted one staircase thus changed.
He also elaborated ever-so-slightly on the contention that he told Saxon he wanted all the electricity and plumbing taken out, along with all the windows to leave the building completely “off the grid.” Ye answered that he did want plumbing in the building, but “it was going to be a different system,.”
Ye’s testimony on Friday followed that of his wife, Bianca Censori, on Thursday, when she also said she could “not recall” in answer to many of Zambrano’s questions, but did offer some lengthier responses than Ye did in following her to the stand.
Censori insisted in her testimony that Saxon had misrepresented his credentials, which has been a key part of Ye’s defense. “When I stopped working at the house, I said, ‘Do you have a contractor’s license?’ And he said he did,” Censori said.
Saxon has insisted he was up-front with Ye, testifying, “I told him I was just a guy with a minivan, not a licensed contractor,” even though the rapper ultimately seemed to put him in charge of the renovation before firing him, in his account.
At the time, Ye was still married to Kim Kardashian, and Censori was known in his organization for her interest in design and architecture. Censori confirmed one part of earlier testimony — that Kardashian was reportedly perturbed when another employee mistook Censori for Kardashian during a visit to the house. The employee testified that Ye forgave him for the snafu.
