Ja Rule Discusses His Involvement in Fyre Festival: 'I'm Not Ashamed'

The rapper spoke about his involvement with the disastrous music event and the lessons he learned following the backlash.

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Ja Rule admits that the 2017 Fyre Festival was a complete shit show; however, the rapper says the event would’ve gone down much differently had he been more involved.

“I’m not ashamed of Fyre at all. Man, the idea—it was brilliant. It was fuckin’ beyond brilliant,” he said during a recent appearance on Revolt TV’s Drink Champs (1:05:30). “[…] It was amazing, but it wasn’t what I dreamed it of being, and what I envisioned of it being, and what I wanted it to be. It wasn’t done properly.”

As previously reported, Ja and Fyre organizers are facing a class-action lawsuit, in which they are accused of placing attendees in dangerous and unsuitable conditions in the Bahamas. Plaintiffs said the event did not deliver what was promised, and there was a lack of adequate food, water, shelter, and medical care on the island. Ja has denied culpability, and is now seeking to get the suit dismissed.

“People didn’t really know I had anything to do with the festival until it went wrong. And then it was like, ‘JA RULE’S FESTIVAL!” he explained. “[…] It was my idea, my vision to do this. And I’m in no way, shape, or form ashamed of my vision […] I wanted to create something amazing. And I’m not a n***a that likes to put blame and throw people under the bus […] I should’ve been more on top of things. I should’ve not trusted people in certain things. And maybe—I’m positive things wouldn’t have been like that. That part of it, I take responsibility.”

Ja compared the situation to creating an album: An artist will have a vision for a project and trust that the record company will execute the vision properly. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t.

“These things in business happen. But the one thing that I’m really proud of myself of is that I didn’t let [Fyre] set me back the way people thought it would,” Ja explained. “I lost money in that shit... I didn’t make a dollar out of any of that. My main lesson that I learned out of that is: Never give nobody the keys to your motherfuckin’ car. You can get in it, n***a, but you can’t drive […] It’s like the old saying, ‘You want something done right, you gotta do it yourself.’”

Ja also discussed the evolution of his career, working with Jennifer Lopez and Ashanti, launching an app, as well as his previous beef with 50 Cent. The rapper claims he and Fif no longer have an issue, simply because he doesn't care anymore. 

“I have no beef with him. I don’t give a fuck what he does. I don’t think he gives a fuck what I do,” Ja said (55:45). “Here’s the real thing, and here’s what all the fans and everybody needs to understand: We're two kids from fucking Queens, from the bottom. We started with nothing […] We made something of ourselves, and we're both in good positions in our life […] This is 2018. I’m 42 years old. I got grown kids […] That shit is irrelevant to me. And for us to have this big kumbaya, I think it’s really past the time for that.”

You can watch Ja’s full Drink Champs interview above.

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