Kanye West has been trying to offload his completely gutted $53million mansion on the beach in Malibu, and his reported reasons are pretty topical, to say the least.
A source alleged to be close to the controversial star told The Daily Mail that Ye doesn’t want the place because the walls aren’t the right color.
“Ye prefers earth tones, muddy colors from silt to loam but never too cold and nothing visually draining like a clay,” the source told the outlet on Sunday (December 31). “Architects and designers working for Ye have in the past been dispatched to collect soil samples from the UK, France, and elsewhere as color references for his iconic looks.”
The source continued: “Unfortunately, the concrete settled into more of a cadet gray and he was hoping for a warmer tone, more of dovetail gray or coachman’s cape. Ye would only visit the house at sunrise and sunset when he said the color didn’t irritate him so much. Eventually, he stopped going altogether.”
Kanye West initially purchased the property in 2021 and paid close to $58million for the home designed by famed Japanese architect, Tadao Ando.
Ando is reportedly one of Kanye West’s favorite designers and that played a role in Yeezy’s post-Donda purchase of the extravagant bunker. Built in 2013, the mansion overlooks the Pacific Ocean and leans heavily on its concrete architecture throughout. But last month, Ye put the gutted-out mansion on the market for $53million.
Jason Oppenheimer — the star of Netflix’s Selling Sunset, and the listing agent for the property — tried to dress up the stripped-down property to The Wall Street Journal, claiming that the “blank canvas” of the house presented a “unique opportunity” to the right buyer.
“Much of the architectural integrity and the architectural value of the house exists,” he said, adding that the home’s original finishes were “dated.” However, Oppenheimer didn’t say why his client was listing the property in the first place.
An expert told The Wall Street Journal that the buyer of the property would have to sink an exorbitant amount of money into the property to make the concrete hull livable again, as it currently is without windows or electricity.
Kanye West was sued by the former project manager of the home in September following a disagreement over his alleged unusual demands.
NBC News reported that 32-year-old Tony Saxon filed the lawsuit after he was fired for refusing to remove all of the windows and electricity from the property. Ye allegedly fired Saxon on November 5, 2021, for not complying with his “dangerous” requests after working for him for around two months.
Saxon was ordered by the rapper to “get the hell out” when he refused to move large generators into the home.
The suit read: “When Plaintiff refused to engage in unlawful conduct or to engage in activity that would further cause him physical injury, Mr. Ye responded: ‘If you don’t do what I say, you’re not going to work for me, I’m not gonna be your friend anymore and you’ll just see me on TV.’”
The complaint said West also told him he would be “considered an enemy if he did not comply.”
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Saxon further alleged that Kanye had promised to pay him $20,000 a week, but he only received payments on two occasions to cover his salary and the project’s budget.
The lawsuit cited violations of labor codes, including dangerous working conditions, unpaid wages and wrongful retaliatory termination.
Saxon said Kanye’s plan for the property was to make it like “a bomb shelter from the 1910s” by removing the custom marble bathrooms, custom windows, plumbing and electricity, as well as replacing the stairs with slides.
He claimed that West didn’t want to be a “slave” to modern conveniences or be “accessible” to the government.
