Ja Ruleis coming under fire again, this time from critics who say he’s trying to profit off a new booking app with eerie similarities to the product that led to the disastrousFyre Festival.
“We are working to solve the decades-old problems that entertainers have had with negotiating terms, executing agreements and getting paid,” the site boasts.
It’s a good problem to try and fix, but anyone who watched either of thetwo new documentariesaboutFyre Festivalknows it’s something Ja Rule and McFarland were working on before their festival fell apart.
As Netflix’sFyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happenedand Hulu’sFyre Fraudoutline, the app back then was called FYRE, with the 2017 music festival created as a promotional tool to show the app’s power. App developers worked on their product concurrently yet separately from festival organizers, who touted the Fyre Festival as a luxury experience on the Bahamian island of Great Exuma with performers likeBlink-182and Migos and high-profile social media influencers includingKendall Jenner.
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Of course, that was not the case. Rather than the deluxe accommodations that were advertised, guests were provided with flimsy tents and cheese sandwiches. One person in attendancewrote on Twitterthat there was barely “any food or water or security or electricity.” Their accounts caused a social media stir.
The event was quickly cancelled, with most of the artists pulling out due toserious organizational flaws and ramshackle conditions. Guests were stranded trying to get home. Many of the people who worked on the event, including local workers, were never paid. When the smoke cleared, McFarland’s company (Fyre Media, Inc) was toast, with the FYRE booking app getting pulled down in its process.
Patrick McMullan via Getty; Jimi Celeste/Patrick McMullan/Getty
Though McFarland was eventuallysentenced to six years in jail for defrauding investorsin October 2018, Ja Rule has mostly emerged unscathed — denying all liability in the incidents.
“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 on Twitter in January. “I too was hustled, scammed, bamboozled, hood winked, lead [sic] astray!!!”
The “What’s Love?” rapper also posted on Instagram, paying tribute to MaryAnne Rolle,a restaurant owner who claimedin the Netflix documentary that she lost her entire life savings because of the short-lived festival.
Despite the visual differences of the FYRE and ICONN apps, fans have still seen the similarities.
“You couldn’t have seriously thought this was a good idea,” one wrote.
“Still can’t believe that after conning guests out of thousands and investors out of millions, Ja Rule decided to name is comeback venture ‘ICONN’ ” added another.
Others mocked Ja Rule for the app’s Fyre Festival connections. “I’ll book you. It’s a concert at Pablo Escobar’s old island,” joked one. “Can’t share any details right now. The money will come after the gig ;)”
Meanwhile, after his jail sentencing in October 2018,McFarland expressed his sorrow for the incidentto PEOPLE.
Ja Rule had 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…”
source: people.com
