CULTURE

Ja Rule Is Already Working on Planning the “Iconic Musical Festival” That Fyre Festival Was Supposed to Be

"In the midst of chaos, there's opportunity."


Ja Rule Performs Thanksgiving Eve At The Pool After Dark
Tom Briglia/Getty Images

In the months since the Fyre Festival went up in flames, some of those involved have apologized, some have spun their experiences into hit documentaries, one has gone to prison, and another, apparently, is already diving right back into the world of event planning. This week, Ja Rule announced that he’s hard at work on creating the music festival that Fyre could’ve been, though it’s unclear whether his doing so is proof that he’s learned from his mistakes as a co-founder of Fyre, or that he’s learned absolutely nothing.

While walking through LAX on Thursday, Ja Rule spoke to TMZ about his post-Fyre plans. He shared that he has yet to watch either documentary about the festival, explaining that he’s not quite ready to look back and laugh at the experience. “It’s not funny to me, man, it’s heartbreaking to me. It was something that I really, really wanted to be special and amazing, and it just didn’t turn out that way,” he said. “But, you know, in the midst of chaos, there’s opportunity, so I’m working on a lot of new things.”

Among these new projects is a platform called Icon, which allows people to book musical acts for their events, eerily reminiscent of the Fyre app that the festival was supposed to help launch. “It is kind of similar to what the [Fyre] app was,” Ja admitted to TMZ, then added, “But you have to understand the app was separate from the festival. Different teams working on the app than the festival, and the whole nine.”

The interviewer then mused that, despite Fyre’s notoriety—or, perhaps, because of it—it could certainly still be resurrected. “It is the most iconic festival that never was,” Ja agreed, then, while hurrying away, revealed that he still wants to have a hand in putting on such a history-making event. “I have plans to create the iconic music fest, but you didn’t hear it from me!” he quipped.

After Netflix and Hulu dropped their dueling docs in January, Ja sent a series of tweets defending his involvement in the Fyre Festival and maintaining his innocence amid co-founder Billy McFarland’s fraudulent planning and fundraising tactics. “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 in one. “I too was hustled, scammed, bamboozled, hood winked, lead astray!!!” he added in another.

Related: Which Fyre Festival Memes Are Better: The Actual Calamity or the Documentaries?