Ja Rule’s Fyre Festival Painting Sells for $122,000 as NFT
Written by SOURCE on March 25, 2021
An original painting, commissioned by Ja Rule, has been sold at auction for around $122,000 through the rapper’s NFT venture KickFlip, which offers established and up-and-coming artists, and holders of valuable art the opportunity to monetize their work with non-fungible tokens.
The portrait of the Fyre Media logo was created by Tripp Derrick Barnes, and once hung in the company’s office in New York. The painting was relocated to Rule’s New Jersey home when the headquarters closed following the disastrous events that resulted in Fyre Festival organizer and promoter Billy McFarland receiving a six-year prison sentence for fraud.
Despite being a prominent name attached to the Fyre Festival, Rule was legally cleared of any wrongdoing since a judge determined that he was unaware of the series of logistical and financial failures going on behind-the-scenes. Rule was able to dodge a $100 million class-action lawsuit against McFarland and others involved in the botched 2017 event.
The rapper has been ready to move on for quite some time now, and his latest push for progress comes with selling off the painting which he believes to be bad luck, telling Forbes, “I just wanted that energy out.” In addition to the painting, the winning bidder will receive a note from Rule which states, “Fuck this painting.” An autograph is also available upon request.
Rule said he was initially going to put this piece of art he paid $2,000 for on eBay, but was convinced to go the NFT route. While the rapper and entrepreneur admittedly only found out about NFTs a couple of weeks ago, he’s putting in the work to learn more about it. Rule was named one of the top five people making waves in the crypto market this week by BeInCrypto, so he seems to be doing something right.
