If you spent the weekend watching one or both of the documentaries breaking down the infamous Fyre Festival travesty, Jeffrey “Ja Rule” Atkins wants you to know something: he is just as gobsmacked as you are. Last week, both Hulu and Netflix released competing documentaries breaking down the intricate scam, from its conception to the Instagram Influencer Thunderdome that so entertained social media nearly two years ago. Hulu’s effort, aptly titled Fyre Fraud, features co-founder Billy McFarland, who was eager to share his questionable side of things before being sentenced to six years in prison for additional fraudulent deeds. Ja declined participation in either film, but there’s plenty of illustrative footage in both that render his involvement undeniable.
As the chatter surrounding the pair of docs reached a fever pitch on Twitter, the rapper broke his (relative) silence on the event to advise the audience to not believe everything they see.
“I love how ppl [sic] watch a doc and think they have all the answers,” he tweeted Sunday morning, alluding to the barrage of viewers who were quick to express their disgust with both him and his literal partner in crime. He then spent a few hours assuring his followers the he, too, was a victim of McFarland’s grand misdirection.
It’s difficult to decipher whether he, as Fyre Festival’s co-founder, was shocked by any specific detail. Maybe he was taken aback by the sight of himself trying to coerce unwilling models to chase a bunch of boozy men into the ocean in order to, in his words, sell a “pipe dream” to unknowing buyers. Or perhaps he was completely dumbfounded by the footage of him admitting they had “falsely advertised” the event when someone justifiably uttered the word “fraud” during a team-wide post-disaster meeting. Or he may have genuinely been unaware of the extent to which McFarland defrauded investors. Who knows, really?
In any case, Ja is ready to set the record straight and clear his good name—just not on Twitter. When questioned about his knowledge of the disastrous state of the festival, he responded with a promise to tell his story at an undisclosed time in an undisclosed manner. “AND I HAVE RECEIPTS!!!”
Let’s hope that whatever he has up his sleeve will include proper restitution for the people of Great Exuma, many of whom remain unpaid after exerting their own resources to work around the clock for the festival that never came to be.
95 Comments
The “hustled, scammed, bamboozled, hood winked, lead astray” tweet makes me miss the Denzel Washington is the Greatest Actor of All Time Period podcast, with its incredibly confusing ratings system based on the bit in Malcolm X that Ja Rule is paraphrasing.
Sounds like the message a lawyer would dictate trying to keep his client out of jail.
“As your legal counsel I advise you close this tweet with a facepalm emoji.”
NO, NOT THAT FACE PALM EMOJI! The one that looks like Alan Dershowitz…
“If you end a tweet with ‘jk’, it can’t be used against you in court.”
Man, I haven’t seen him so shocked since his opponents hit the NOS in The Fast and the Furious
It’s a shame it wasn’t for real.
Ja Rule is essentially just a wedding singer version of DMX.
More like the D’angelo of wedding singers. Dude ain’t no gangsta, not even pretend. Won’t ever happen. His name is Jeffrey. Jeffrey.
My god that is perfect
Thank God his rapping career ended years ago.
“I love how people see me making a recorded statement and then think that I made a recorded statement!”
But enough about Trump, let’s stay on topic with Ja Rule!
“How dare you judge me simply based on my actions and words!”
“Hey, the only thing I promised anyone with the festival is that they’d be Livin It Up! None of the amenities made it to the island, but I was Always On Time! Anything that went right that week, Put It On Me!”
I’m giving you a star but it’s actually in place of my pity for being able to recall so many Ja Rule songs
My favorite part of the Netflix doc (besides the concert promoter in the nice crewneck sweater describing how he came thisclose to giving a stranger a blowie to get drinking water, because c’mon, how is that NOT everyone’s jaw-dropping favorite moment?) was during the company post-mortem when someone said they’d defrauded their investors and guests, and Ja Rule on the phone is all, ‘Nah, we didn’t DEFRAUD anyone. No one died! It was just false advertising!’ which is FRAUD, hon. Get thee to a dictionary.
Well from his tweets- “hustled, scammed, bamboozled, hood winked, lead astray” it appears he has a thesaurus, but not necessarily a dictionary.
Silver lining: the next time one of my students misspells “led” (which is almost always), I can make them feel better by telling them that, hey, Ja Rule makes the same mistake too — and he’s a millionaire!
ZEPPELIN…
Or the script to Malcolm X
The part of the Fyre Fraud doc that kind of horrified me was when someone pointed out that those tent areas bordered on high ledges (with no railings) that led way, way down to a concrete floor, so it would be really easy for some drunk person to fall right off and (at the very least) break their neck. It’s probably actually a good thing for all involved that the festival never happened, because there almost certainly would have been serious injuries or deaths.
I don’t have Hulu so I haven’t seen that one but I’m seriously thinking of just getting the free one-month trial just to watch it. I was amazed there weren’t more injuries, considering how much day drinking there was.
A drunk? Break his neck? lol.
That was close, but my favorite was the part where the onsite team turned on each other because only one of them could have released pictures of the site (where 200+ unpaid locals were working, but clearly it didn’t occur to anyone that angry locals were capable of internetting, wonder why).
Especially when they go uncompensated for hours of labor for weeks at a time. Can’t imagine why they’d take revenge photos.
I thought they said that in addition to the pictures, direct quotes from their internal meetings and other information that no one outside of the meeting room would know was being posted.
To put it in Ja Rulian, “They act like it’s mur-duh!”
RE: the blowjob bribe near-miss. Had any of these geniuses been regular readers of Dan Savage, they could have solved that problem quite easily.
mine also—I was howling at that fuggin moron Ja Rule when he said that.
It’s a minor point compared to the many bombshells in the movie, but I did chuckle when at barely 3 minutes in Ja Rule introduces Billy as “my partner in crime”.
“Hustled, scammed, bamboozled, hood winked, lead astray!”That’s the title of his next album sorted then.
“Your winnings, sir.”
Classic film burn… nice.
“Niggers gotta Nigger/Nigger-Rig cause Nigger Stuff” — MAGA Nation, Pres. Donnie Drumpfsters, & GOP F*ckTards — In Remembrance of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr etc.
The fuck is wrong with you.
Apologies. Was just trying to expose the true colors/beliefs of Republicans/GOPNation. They’re Horrible Peoples.
Yeah, that’s still hate speech. Especially with the spelled out double R’s. Not necessary or okay at all.
Ok. Will keep it in mind. Thx for your imput. Regards. Seriously 🙂
Do your future self a favor and just stay off the Internet. Clearly you don’t know how to contribute to a conversation, even if this was about how people are observing MLK day
The content of your post and the context of where you’re posting it really don’t serve that thesis very well. In fact, it comes across as you exposing yourself as a horrible peoples.
So you lower youself to their standard. You must be some leftist piece of shit to think such a thing.
what
Apologies. Was just trying to expose the true colors/beliefs of Republican/GOPNation. They’re Horrible Peoples.
They’re already exposed. There’s no need to remind us when we’re laughing at Ja Rule.
You did it poorly.
Dad, we’ve had this conversation before; that’s not what being ‘woke’ is about. Also, you’re drunk.
True. Thx for insight 🙂 Regards etc.
There are so many things wrong with this comment I don’t even know where to begin. Actually, I do: Using that word is violence, no matter what the context. Fuck.
How did this even get past the content filter? Does Kinja even have a content filter? What is this place? How did I get here?
Ernie’s on break.
This is the kind of content that Kinja wants prominently featured in its comment section?
No. I was wrong.
Get off the internet old man and never comment anymore. Also, don’t say shit like this.
You’re right. I was wrong (regardless of intentions). Am an ally. Not an enemy. Again, Apologies.https://automotive-acne.kinja.com/
Dude. You really need to back away from the keyboard, go to a gun store or wal-mart or wherever you have it in your little mind that these people you hate are, and meet some real people. Talk to them. Ask them about their kids, their upbringing, their job, what they like to do etc.Forming your opinions of people based on what people who hate them say on social media leads to ignorant comments like the one you just posted. Spewing hate, using derogatory racist hate speech all in the name of “exposing the true colors” only exposed your own. Perhaps you should go volunteer at a battered women‘s shelter or at a church food pantry for a while. Get to know people, talk to them, not to ambush them to reinforce your own views, but to see the world through different eyes.
Ja Rule hasn’t been relevant since Emenem whooped him in their feud 15 years ago.
The confusion is probably due to the language barrier. I am assuming this “Ja Rule” is a German fellow?
Ja Rule, mein Fuhrer!
Nein.
I preferred the Hulu version, it felt like since the Fuck Jerry team were participating more closely in the Netflix one that they were trying to diminish their participation in the events which happened. When if you were to follow the Hulu version that isn’t so.It also had some more interesting things to say about the vanity and vacuousness of those that went.
I haven’t seen it because I don’t have Hulu but if you tell me a ‘social media influencer’ (a phrase that makes me barf because I’m almost 50 and I’m preternaturally grumpy) comes off really terribly then I’ll spring for the subscription. My schadenfreude is not yet satisfied.
Well there is a scene that really exposed them imo where they are interviewing influencers and they each (separately interviewed) mention their “brand” then when asked what they mean by their brand list the exact same buzzwords.Because they obviously each receive the same messaging to pass on to those they influence.
Oh my God, that “brand” conversation……..proof that human life was a mistake. Rarely has my desire to pummel a stranger been so high.
same here!
I agree with you 100%, but what’s been funny to me is seeing some of the resistance from Millennial folks to some of the points Fyre Fraud makes about social media, influencer culture, and the effect it’s had on that particular generation. I feel like it actually takes a pretty sympathetic view toward Millennials, but even the slightest hint of criticism has triggered this push-back, as if acknowledging that social media can sell people something with all style and no substance better than many other forms of media is a personal attack. Weird.
Perhaps the simultaneously most and least-surprising part of the film is how quickly the concert goers turned on each other.At one point an interviewee states—without shame or remorse—how he didn’t want any “neighbors,” so he started punching holes in nearby tents and pissing in them to prevent anyone from sleeping near him. The hoarding of goods was awful, but I can at least wrap my head around why someone would do that. Destroying one the few resources available because someone might end up existing too close to you is some next-level assholery.
While that was certainly worse, it reminds me of how some people riding busses and subways put their backpack on the adjacent seat so people won’t sit next to them. It’s not your seat, asshole!
Hahah dude YES! When that guy said that shit about pissing on the beds next to him, all proud n’ shit, both me and GF just turned to each other and were like “the fuck? well that guy is a huge asshole”
Right? The guy’s shittiness combined with his complete lack of self awareness was absolutely baffling.
Lol ya, pretty impressive honestly. I def did not feel bad for them.
That’s exactly what I was thinking during that part. What kind of asshole are you that you want to deny people the basic need to just fucking sleep somewhere? He was awful.
you know and everytime I watch stuff like the walking dead I think to myself: would humans reeaally become so horrible to each other rather than help each other in a situation like this? Well here you have your answer. No zombies, no virus outbreak etc. just this stupid festival. People like this are the reason why we cant have nice things.
For the record, I definitely do not want to be Ja Rule.
I was even MORE shocked than Ja Rule. Not at the fraud part. At the fact that they sold out a luxury event with Ja Rule as the celebrity pitchman. His “heyday” was for about 5 minutes in the late 90’s.
Fuck Jeffrey.
How can he be surprised when there is one part in docu where he is on an all departments tele meeting and is saying misleading is not lying (i’m paraphrasing but it was something hair splitting ridiculous like that) .His hands are far from clean.
This made me realize that Twitter is more fun when you read it in Ja Rule’s voice.
It sounds better as Diet DMX?
wouldn’t it be fun if Billy McFarland ends up rooming with Michael Cohen in prison?
You know, even if Ja Rule didn’t know what was going on, that’s still on him. He’s putting his name to this and would have taken as much kudos as possible if the festival had been what it claimed, so it’s his responsibility to know what was going on with it and shut it down once he realised it was a scam.
In other news, Soulja Boy is shocked to learn that his SouljaGame console and handheld are just cheap Chinese emulators pirating old Nintendo games. “I was scammed, too.”
*SouljaGameBoy
I love that we have descended to the point where we are literally asking what Ja Rule has to say. And by “love,” I mean this is the dumbest timeline.
So why does he always have this dumb look on his face like it’s hurts his brain to even talk? Ja rule is a bitch and who cares about his ass since 2001 anyway??!!
No offense, Jah Doofus, but you’re a stupid asshole.“Y’all want it to be me so bad”. Uh, no. I don’t want you to exist at all. I probably hadn’t thought of you in five years until this happened. No one had, because no one cares. There’s no grand conspiracy against you here. You’re a narcissistic, talentless asshole who committed a crime. It doesn’t take magic powers to figure this out.
Ja Rule literally named his next company I-Conn. It’s a pretty clear clue to his level of scamming. He needs to go back to the pen.
I loved every minute of both docs and I loved how he thought he could compare Fyre( who took no blame) to Samsung( which tried to fix the issue and then took the blame) without any hesitation
I would have bet real cash money that Mr. Rule was going to fall back on “I’m just a simple ol’ country rapper who was just as shocked by the perfidy of the flim-flam man as y’all.”
“I never frauded anyone! All I did was promise, and accept payment for, a service I was totally unable to provide! Where’s the fraud, I ask you?”
The Frye Festival could have ended up as a Millennial Altamont. Take 3,000 or so concertgoers, strand them at a bar for five hours where they down prodigious quantities of tequila, then herd them to rain sodden tents, of which there are barely enough, and you’re courting a Lord of the Flies-style calamity . It’s doubtful whether Great Exuma would have had sufficient law enforcement, emergency crews and hospital resources to respond to a crisis involving that many people.
What are the charges they face in Bahamas? I know they owe the workers and others $$$. Would be great for them to end up in a prison there….fed Bologna sandwiches 3x day…
All the Netflix doc proved to me is what a complete dumbfuck Ja Rule is.
“It’s not how you attend your festival, it’s how you fleece your festival.”- Ja Rule… probably