Netflix/PA ImagesFyre Festival caused so much drama and controversy you’d assume its organisers would do everything in their power to try and erase it from people’s minds.
But they’re not. Nope. In fact, the founder of the doomed festival, Ja Rule, has previously spoken out about creating yet another ‘iconic’ festival, and has now gone on to name a song after Fyre.
The rapper’s latest single, aptly named FYRE (For Your Real Entertainment), uses the instrumental to Doug E. Fresh and Slick Rick’s classic track The Show as the backdrop for him to explain what went wrong in the Bahamas.
PA ImagesJa Rule, real name Jeffrey Bruce Atkins, shared the new single on social media, alongside the caption: ‘Fyre… New album release date LEAP YEAR!!! Until then Have fun!!! love y’all… Rule.’
Some of the lyrics are:
The fest— the fest- the festival is on fire / We don’t need no water, make that motherfucker hotter / Hotter than the sun, but it wasn’t that / Show of hands if you got your money back? / Just playing, I got sued for that / 100 mil to be exact.
His new track comes after he was legally cleared from a lawsuit regarding the 2017 festival; in November, a judge dismissed an appeal by those who attended Fyre to name Ja Rule as part of the $100 million class-action lawsuit filed against the festival’s co-founder Billy McFarland and other officials.
The rapper’s lawyer, Ryan Hayden Smith, told AllHipHop that this and other rulings provide ‘total vindication’ for his client. Despite this legal victory, Ja Rule is apparently still getting roasted for being affiliated with the festival.
He alludes to this in his latest track, rapping:
In the people’s court, baby they’ll hang ya, like their ancestors / Full sabotage, it ain’t fraud.
The festival was intended to be a ‘VIP experience’ on a private island in the Bahamas, with guests promised private jets, white-sand beaches and gourmet food. Instead, they arrived to find an unorganised dump site and were given cheese sandwiches on arrival. Contracted staff were left thousands of dollars out of pocket.
NetflixIn the year and a half since, the festival has been reduced to nothing more than a meme. Co-founders Billy McFarland and Ja Rule have received most of the backlash – not forgetting Andy King, the man who was quite literally prepared to ‘suck dick’ to make Fyre work.
But ah well, as long as we get new music out of it… Right?
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A Broadcast Journalism Masters graduate who went on to achieve an NCTJ level 3 Diploma in Journalism, Lucy has done stints at ITV, BBC Inside Out and Key 103. While working as a journalist for UNILAD, Lucy has reported on breaking news stories while also writing features about mental health, cervical screening awareness, and Little Mix (who she is unapologetically obsessed with).