Rapper and designer Kanye West, also known as Ye, has reportedly shown employees at Adidas explicit pictures of his former wife Kim Kardashian, as well as his own sex tapes, according to former Yeezy team members.

Rolling Stone reported in an article on Tuesday that his behaviour created a "toxic environment". The controversial rapper is said to have used fear and manipulation to assert dominance.

These claims have been made in an open letter to Adidas executives, which called for adequate action. It also accused the fashion company of "turning a blind eye to abhorrent behaviour," according to Rolling Stone.

Multiple previous employees have spoken out about West.

According to one staff member, the rapper showed a "very revealing and personal" photo of Kardashian on his phone during a job interview in 2018. "My wife just sent me this," West allegedly said at the time.

Another ex-employee claimed that West showed "personal" images of Kardashian to the creative team at Yeezy in the same year, while yet another told the publication that West was "not afraid to show explicit images or talk about situations that should be kept private".

The rapper is also said to have shown staff his own sex tapes. "Adidas enabled a lot of that kind of behavior," a former staff member, who worked with West, claimed.

The open letter The Truth About Yeezy: A Call to Action for Adidas Leadership, which Rolling Stone obtained, also includes quotes from previous staff, saying that the rapper targeted female team members with "a very sick pattern of predacious behavior toward women".

"He has, in years past, exploded at women in the room with offensive remarks, and would resort to sexually disturbing references when providing design feedback. This type of response from a brand partner is one that Adidas employees should never be subjected to, nor should Adidas leadership ever tolerate," the letter stated.

According to staff members, West's alleged behaviour was simply accepted due to his status as a public figure.

On Wednesday, an Adidas spokesperson told The Guardian that the company "does not tolerate hate speech and offensive behavior and therefore has terminated the Adidas Yeezy partnership.

"We have been and continue to be actively engaged in conversations with our employees about the events that led to our decision to end the partnership. They have our full support and as we’re working through the details of the termination, we have been clear that we want to keep our employees’ talent and skills within the organization.

"Having said this, we will not discuss private conversations, details or events that led to our decision to terminate the Adidas Yeezy partnership and decline to comment on any related speculation," they said.

Testing Testing Seeing if my Twitter is unblocked

— ye (@kanyewest) November 20, 2022

Ye lost his design contract with the sportswear brand last month, following a series of anti-Semitic tirades. His comments also resulted in a ban from Twitter, but the rap star has already returned to the platform with a "shalom" post on Monday, after just six weeks.

Adidas and West first partnered to create the lucrative Yeezy trainer line in 2013.