Ja Rule fights back against Fyre Festival documentaries
Ja Rule is fighting back against claims that he is at least complicit in the disastrous Fyre Festival, in which attendees expected to sleep in luxurious villas on a secluded island in the Bahamas, dine on scrumptious food and enjoy concerts put on by major music artists. Instead, they were reportedly stranded, given cheese sandwiches to eat and forced to sleep in emergency tents in April 2017.
Rule’s comments were in response to two documentaries on the festival that blame him for the doomed event – Hulu’s “Fyre Fraud” and Netflix‘s “Fyre: The Greatest Party that Never Happened.” Ja defended himself on Twitter: “I love how ppl [sic] watch a doc and think they have all the answers,” he wrote. “I had an amazing vision to create a festival like NO OTHER!!! I would NEVER SCAM or FRAUD anyone what sense does that make???”
—California Sen. Kamala Harris announces she will seek the presidency in 2020—
Because of poor planning, one of the greatest festivals to ever be put on – or at least that’s how it was dubbed – became a monumental disaster, reduced to funny memes on social media. It is once again back in the center of controversy following the documentaries.
Ja Rule, 42, said he had to put out a lot of his own money to try and rectify the situation. The mastermind of the festival and Rule’s partner, Billy McFarland, was sentenced to six years in jail for fraud. The rapper took to Twitter to express that his motives were good and he never intended this outcome.
“I had an amazing vision to create a festival like NO OTHER!!! I would NEVER SCAM or FRAUD anyone what sense does that make???” he wrote.
The Fyre Festival was marketed as a luxury music festival meant to stretch over two weekends in April 2017.
In his response on social media, Ja Rule seemed to put himself in the same situation as Maryann Rolle, the unpaid caterer and asked whether people would find Rolle responsible for the infamous cheese sandwiches. A GoFundMe campaign was launched seeking to get Rolle the money she’s owed. It has raised over $80,000 since Jan. 14.
—Sorority girl ousted after laughing and filming her friend in blackface uttering racial slur—
Ja did bring up that Hulu paid McFarland for an exclusive interview, while also highlighting that social media company Fuckjerry were paid by Netflix for their involvement, according to the New York Daily News. Fuckjerry was criticized for allegedly misleading people to the true nature of Fyre Festival, according to Ja Rule. “That money should’ve went to the Bahamian ppl [sic],” Ja Rule tweeted, saying he has “receipts.”
The Netflix documentary featured footage of a team-wide call, where Ja Rule is heard saying the festival was bad publicity that they would all have to get through. “Let’s think of how to dig ourselves out of this shit, man,” he said. “We didn’t kill anybody, nobody got hurt. We made a mistake, we’ll get past it.”
