The law firm representing Kanye West, who topped the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s list of the 10 worst antisemitic incidents of 2022, has resorted to publishing newspaper advertisements telling the rapper and fashion mogul that they are severing ties with him.
The move comes after the law firm had been unable to contact West for months. According to reports, the rapper cancelled the mobile number he had provided to the Greenberg Traurig law firm, they no longer have a current address, and they have been unsuccessful in reaching him.
The firm now plans to place ads in two Los Angeles newspapers containing the legal order from the judge granting them permission to drop out of West’s case, according to TMZ.
In December, West’s business manager also said he was unable to locate his former client, explaining he was trying serve him with a $4.5 million lawsuit for unpaid fees.
Thomas St. John said that his former client was nowhere to be found. St. John claimed that West had been playing "a cat-and-mouse game" and was hiding from being served.
Greenberg Traurig were hired by West in a copyright suit brought by Ultra International Music Publishing.
The music publishing company is suing West, 45, alleging that without permission he used samples from Chicago musician Marshall Jefferson’s 1986 song Move Your Body, TMZ reported.
Last year was a controversial time for the rapper, who lost much of his public support with a series of antisemitic outbursts.
After multiple antisemitic statements in interviews and social media posts in 2022, West topped the Simon Wiesenthal Center report of worst antisemitic incidents of the year, making the #1 spot on the annual list for normalizing “classic tropes deployed by Jew haters.”
“These antisemitic screeds were kept afloat for decades by America’s godfather of hate – Louis Farrakhan. In 2022, one man, rapper Ye (Kanye West) used his unparalleled social media influence to morph these historic tropes into a firestorm of real-time antisemitism – absorbed by millions, and inspiring acts of hate against Jews – living and dead,” the report said.
The center put West at the number one spot on the list because during 2022 he “delivered or shared antisemitic conspiracies to a social media following of tens of millions.”