Ja Rule Still Defends Fyre Fest Fiasco, Saying Other Events Have Had Bigger Issues

In an interview with The Breakfast Club, rapper and co-creator of the now infamous Fyre Festival, Ja Rule, defended the event and claims that he is getting calls from some of the biggest festival creators in the world to try and do the Fyre Festival “the right way.”

“Money can be replaced,” Rule says in the above clip, saying that the event wasn’t life or death. He paints the discourse in a racialized way, referencing that at the Rolling Loud event several people were murdered and one of the performers was arrested. “When these documentaries coming out?” He then follows up by saying that when it’s Black people being “fucked over”  it’s not a big deal in media, but when some white kids don’t get the tents they were promised they make two documentaries.

Ja. Ja. Sweet Ja. Stop.

Those people were not promised tents, they paid thousands of dollars for villas and luxury tents that you advertised for them. The difference between you and Rolling Loud is that Rolling Loud put on an actual music festival and didn’t strand hundred of people in the Bahamas without food and water as they were locked in an airport. Not to mention the tickets for Rolling Loud were @200+, which is a lot, but is doable. Fyre Festival tickets were $500 to $1,500, and VIP tickets were $12,000 or more, not to mention the money they were told to put on bracelets with a recommended minimum of $300+.

But you know what is a race issue, since you brought it up, Ja? The treatment of the Bahamian people who you had working 19 hour days without payment—especially Maryann Rolle, owner of the Exuma Point Resort Bar & Grille. She paid the staff out of her own savings because she was never properly paid by McFarland. It took a GoFundMe after the Fyre Festival documentaries highlighted the issue to get her restitution.

You and ya boy Billy committed fraud. Massive fraud. Which is as white as you can get. Also, please don’t act like you weren’t relying on white audiences to make this festival work, because who else was gonna feel called to party with social media influencers like Kylie Jenner, Bella Hadid, and Emily Ratajkowski?

But it’s all okay in his estimation because, despite the fraud and bad publicity, Ja Rule is saying that people in the festival industry recognize his vision and the fact that he had his finger on the pulse of something great. Plus, with Billy, there is the perfect fall guy. “So these people know the purity of Ja Rule.”

Do you know the purity of Ja Rule?

(via Twitter, image: Netflix)

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Princess Weekes

Princess (she/her-bisexual) is a Brooklyn born Megan Fox truther, who loves Sailor Moon, mythology, and diversity within sci-fi/fantasy. Still lives in Brooklyn with her over 500 Pokémon that she has Eevee trained into a mighty army. Team Zutara forever.

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