Join the queue, Ja
The Fyre Festival documentary that recently premiered on Netflix (who has Hulu?) really shed light on the real victims of Billy McFarland’s crazy pipe dream. The local Bermudians working away in the hot sun trying their best to create something that would bring some new life to their island. Perhaps more heartbreakingly, Maryann Rolle, who cried as she explained that when organisers fled the scene she was left to deal with the workers who were never paid, resulting in her giving away her life savings to keep everyone happy.
However, Ja Rule now wants to be remembered as a victim of the festival rather than an orchestrator of the chaos that ensued. “I too was hustled, scammed, bamboozled, hoodwinked, lead astray,” he wrote on Twitter.
I guess I’m on Fyre this week... 🔥🤣😂😭
— Ja Rule (@Ruleyork) January 20, 2019
It doesn’t bode well for the rapper’s public image, especially since his on-screen moments in the doc mostly comprise of him drinking alcohol with bikini-clad models “Livin’ it Up”. When it became clear the whole event had failed, he’s shown in the documentary declaring that the festival was “false advertisement” as opposed to fraud. “It’s not like anybody died,” he said on a conference call to the Fyre company.
He told his followers that he lost “plenty” of his own money trying to put the festival on with McFarland, who is probably going to spend some time behind bars for being a “serial fraudster”.
Interestingly, Ja claims that Hulu paid Billy to be a part of their documentary, and that Netflix had paid others who were involved in the promotion of the original event – he wasn’t present in either film.
Because Billy was involved with BOTH 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... https://t.co/f9g1kg8Z99
— Ja Rule (@Ruleyork) January 20, 2019
“I never made or got paid one dollar from Fyre... But everyone else did,” he continued. “I had an amazing vision to create a festival like NO OTHER!!! I would NEVER SCAM or FRAUD anyone what sense does that make???”
As for Maryann Rolle, who cooked and took care of the guests and staff better than the actual festival organisers ever could, her crowdfund has taken off. She’s received more than $150,000 so far.
Ja Rule has publicly apologised for the pain the festival caused her in an Instagram post – or at least, as close to an apology as he could muster. “My heart goes out to this lovely lady Maryann Rolle. We’ve never met but I’m devastated that something that was meant to be amazing, turn(ed) out to be such a disaster and hurt so many people... SORRY to anyone who has been negatively affected by the festival.”