A 2010 music video shoot is back under scrutiny after Jennifer An described an alleged on-camera encounter with Ye that she says left her feeling violated and afraid. The assault lawsuit resurfaced this week after An spoke on BBC’s Fame Under Fire about her claims that Ye choked her during a La Roux video shoot, smeared her makeup, and put his fingers in her mouth.
An, who sued Ye in 2024, said she was excited after booking the job. According to her account, models were “lined up in the hallway” when Ye arrived, and he chose three women to appear in the scene with him. Then, she said, the setup changed.
“I didn’t know what was going to happen. I was given no direction. I was just told to sit in this chair.”
From there, An alleged the moment became physical without warning.
“It started where he went up to my face and he was smearing my makeup on my face…smearing the makeup all over my face in a way that just felt wrong. He started sticking his fingers in my mouth and I feel like he was like trying to touch as much as he could.”
Ye’s team has pushed back by framing the alleged moment as performance, not violence. In a statement cited by Complex, his rep argued, “The emulation of sexual violence for artistic purposes is not itself sexual violence, and the presence of physical contact in a staged performance does not transform expressive conduct into a crime.” Attorney Jesse Weinstein, representing An, previously answered that argument directly: “Labeling alleged sexual assault as ‘artistic expression’ does not place it beyond the reach of the law.”
The new angle is bigger than one set. An’s case now sits beside multiple public accusations that describe alleged misconduct being excused, minimized, or absorbed into Ye’s creative world. Former assistant Lauren Pisciotta first sued Ye in 2024, accusing him of sexual harassment, hostile work environment, breach of contract, and wrongful termination. Ye’s rep denied those allegations as “baseless” and accused her of “blackmail and extortion.
Pisciotta later amended her complaint with claims including sexual assault, stalking, sexual battery, false imprisonment, and sex trafficking. Ye’s representatives did not immediately respond to the Los Angeles Times after that amended filing.
In another lawsuit, former YZYVSN workers alleged hostile conditions, racial harassment, unpaid labor, and exposure of minors to pornography while working on a Yeezy app tied to Ye’s rollout plans. Milo Yiannopoulos denied those claims and called the lawsuit “a joke.”
Then, in April 2026, a John Doe plaintiff sued Ye over an alleged 2024 Los Angeles restaurant attack, claiming Ye punched him without warning and kept hitting him while he was unconscious.
None of these allegations equal a conviction. Still, together they create a sharper question: when multiple people across different settings describe alleged harm around Ye’s orbit, how long can “art,” “business,” or “performance” explain the same kind of chaos?
