Ja Rule has sold his Fyre Festival painting as NFT for $122k

"I just wanted that energy out"

Ja Rule has reportedly sold his Fyre Festival logo oil painting in NFT form (non-fungible token) for £88,640 (US$122,000).

As reported by Consequence of Sound, the rapper has sold the 48″ by 60″ oil painting that had been hanging in the festival’s New York office during the planning stages. Ja Rule told Forbes the reason for selling the artwork was because he “just wanted that energy out.”

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Bidding on Ja Rule’s item began on Tuesday March 23 with a reserve price of £43,6000 (US$600,000). It was accompanied by a handwritten note by Ja Rule which read “Fuck this painting”.

Rather than using traditional currency, the buyer of the painting – who has remained anonymous – chose to purchase via Ja Rule’s new NFT currency exchange company, Flipkick, which allows artists to sell physical work in NFT form.

The notorious 2017 Fyre Festival saw the rapper team up with entrepreneur Billy McFarland to create a luxurious festival in the Bahamas where tickets ranged between $4,000 to $12,000.

It soon descended into chaos as major acts cancelled their appearances and it emerged guests were being housed in emergency tents and, rather than the gourmet meals they were promised, being served cheese sandwiches.

The fallout from the festival included an investigation by the FBI, a Netflix documentary, and Ja Rule and McFarland being hit with an £80 million (US$100 million) lawsuit, of which Ja Rule was later cleared of any wrongdoing.

In December 2019, Ja Rule – aka Jeffrey Atkins – released a song about the ill-fated Fyre Festival entitled ‘FYRE’, which the rapper at the time insisted was an acronym for ‘For Your Real Entertainment’.

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The song’s lyrical content focused primarily on the event and included references to Atkins’ having his name cleared after the subsequent lawsuit.

Despite Fyre Festival’s failure, Ja Rule has said in the past he’d like to host another “iconic” festival.

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