Ja Rule Defends Himself After Fyre Festival Documentaries

Ja Rule has responded to two new documentaries that chronicle the rise and fall of the doomed Fyre Festival, which the rapper co-founded with entrepreneur Billy McFarland.

The two documentaries — Netflix’s Fyre and Hulu’s Fyre Fraud — were both released last week. The documentaries each show how the 2017 music festival, once touted as a luxury experience on the Bahamian island of Great Exuma with performers like Blink-182 and Migos and high-profile social media influencers including Kendall Jenner, fell apart.

Ja Rule, 42, posted on Twitter as people watched the documentaries over the weekend. “I love how ppl watch a doc and think they have all the answers,” he tweeted on Sunday, kicking off a series of tweets that responded to various criticisms.

“I too was hustled, scammed, bamboozled, hood winked, lead [sic] astray!!!,” he added in another tweet.

Ja Rule also posted on Instagram, paying tribute to MaryAnne Rolle, a restaurant owner who claimed in the Netflix documentary that she lost her entire life savings because of the short-lived festival, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

“My heart goes out to this lovely lady,” he wrote. “MaryAnne Rolle we’ve never met but I’m devastated that something that was meant to be amazing, turn out to be such a disaster and hurt so many ppl… SORRY to anyone who has been negatively effected [sic] by the festival…”

Rather than the deluxe accommodations that were advertised by Fyre Fest, guests were provided with flimsy tents and cheese sandwiches. One person in attendance wrote on Twitter that there was barely “any food or water or security or electricity.” Many of the artists had pulled out due to serious organizational flaws and ramshackle conditions. The event was quickly cancelled.

McFarland was sentenced to six years in jail for defrauding investors in October 2018.

“I am incredibly sorry for my collective actions and will right the wrongs I have delivered to my family, friends, partners, associates and, you, the general public,” McFarland told PEOPLE at the time. “I’ve always sought — and dreamed — to accomplish incredible things by pushing the envelope to deliver for a common good, but I made many wrong and immature decisions along the way and I caused agony. As a result, I’ve lived every day in prison with pain, and I will continue to do so until I am able to make up for some of this harm through work and actions that society finds respectable.”

Ja Rule apologized on Twitter while the Fyre Fest debacle was unfolding in April 2017, posting a screenshot of a Notes app that read, “We are working right now on getting everyone of [sic] the island SAFE that is my immediate concern… I will make a statement soon I’m heartbroken at this moment my partners and I wanted this to be an amazing event it was NOT A SCAM…”

“I truly apologize as this is NOT MY FAULT,” he continued,” but I’m taking responsibility I’m deeply sorry to everyone who was inconvenienced by this…”

Netflix’s Fyre and Hulu’s Fyre Fraud are both streaming now.

Ja was coppin' pleas like ...........

When him & Billy was sellin' pipe dreams .........

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