After the release of two documentaries about the ill-fated Fyre Festival, former company co-founder Ja Rule took to Twitter to shed light on who the real victim of the situation was: himself.
Over a period of hours on Sunday, Ja Rule defended himself with the claim that people shouldn't think they know the truth after watching the Hulu and Netflix documentaries. But with little in the way of specifics being shared, things quickly got ugly from there.
The rapper has claimed no wrongdoing for his part in the disastrous festival that left Fyre employees and local Bahamians in massive debt. At the time of the event in 2017, he apologized on Twitter but still asserted it was, "NOT MY FAULT...but I'm taking responsibility."
Despite lots of chummy footage in the documentaries of Ja Rule with Fyre co-founder Billy McFarland, as well as first-hand accounts of people who say they warned the rapper of the impending disaster, he continues to maintain his innocence and ignorance of the fraudulent activity.
"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 during the Sunday tweetstorm. "I too was hustled, scammed, bamboozled, hood winked, lead astray!!!"
One scene in the Netflix documentary shows a team-wide meeting directly after the festival with Ja Rule, McFarland, and Fyre employees. Ja Rule can be heard on the phone saying, "Right now, yes, we are the fucking laughing stock of everything. We are 'Scam Fyre.' But that might not be the case after we fucking put our plan in play and start to spin it."
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One employee pushed back on this, saying they could not come back from the way they lied to the public and basically committed fraud. Ja Rule was quick to respond with, "That's not fraud. that's not fraud. That is, uh, I would call that false advertising."
In his tweetstorm, Ja Rule went on to claim that the two documentaries were not to be trusted because both are ethically compromised.
"Hulu PAID BILLY!!! That money should’ve went to the Bahamian ppl Netflix PAID fuck Jerry the same guys that did the promo for the festival," he wrote.
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When asked why he declined to give his side of the story in either of the docs, Ja Rule added, "Because Billy was involved with BOTH [documentaries] he was trying to get them to pay him and Hulu bit... I heard they paid him somewhere btw 100 to 250... that money was supposed to go to the locals by LAW..."
To his credit, this is somewhat correct. The social media company behind Fuck Jerry was responsible for Fyre Festival's social media, and then proceeded to serve as executive producers on the Netflix documentary. The Ringer also confirmed that the Hulu documentarians paid McFarland for an interview and behind-the-scenes footage, but deny the $250,000 figure.
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In the Hulu documentary, the interviewer presses McFarland about how it could be possible that Ja Rule had no idea what was going on with the festival, since he was frequently on the island while the planning (or lack thereof) was occurring. McFarland dodges the question, saying he will not comment on their private conversations.
McFarland was found guilty on charges of fraud and sentenced to six years in prison, and there have been legal repercussions for other key organizers as well. But not for Ja Rule. The rapper cited the lack of FBI investigations and legal charges against him as proof that he was not the one who scammed people.
His Twitter screed devolved into angry responses directed at those criticizing him, and retweets of a woman appearing to imply that the Bahamian caterer who did not get paid for her work on the festival (inspiring a recent GoFundMe) should also not be be trusted and is partially to blame for the fallout.
The full picture of the Fyre Festival fiasco remains murky, even after two documentaries. For his part, Ja Rule hinted that he'd be providing his version of events too, writing, "You ain’t getting the goods over Twitter... but I will tell my truth real soon... AND I HAVE RECEIPTS!!!"
We'd certainly like to see those receipts, Mr. Rule.
