Ja Rule Sells Fyre Festival Artwork For $122,000 As NFT
Photo Credit: Mat Hayward/Getty Images
"F*ck This Painting": Ja Rule Sells Fyre Festival Artwork For $122,000 As NFT
Ja Rule sold the original painting through his NFT venture, Flipkick.
Ja Rule has entered the world of NFTs (nonfungible tokens). The entrepreneur sold an oil-paint portrait of the Fyre Festival logo through his NFT venture, Flipkick, on March 23. The painting sold for $122,000.
Originally made by artist Tripp Derick Barnes when the Fyre Festival was first being planned, Ja said he wanted to get rid of the painting because he felt it was bringing him bad luck in his house, telling Forbes that he "wanted that energy out." The reserve price for the painting was initially set at $600,000, but ended up being sold for $122,000. Ja also told Forbes that he had planned to sell the artwork on eBay until a friend suggested that he turn it into an NFT.
\u201cGoodnight...\u201d— Ja Rule (@Ja Rule) 1616600893
"I heard about NFTs [first] maybe like, a couple of weeks ago," Ja said. "I wasn't too educated on them, and I’m still learning a lot about it....I think people got a little bit tired of the regular stocks-and-bonds way of investing."
Alongside the painting, whoever purchased it also received a note from Ja that said, "F**k this painting," as well as the chance to get an autograph from him if requested. As Forbes noted, "most NFTs are purely digital — often virtual artwork and its accompanying blockchain ownership record." Ja's was different in that his featured "a digital ledger entry for a real-life item."
In late 2019, Ja was cleared of any wrongdoing in the $100 million class-action lawsuit against Fyre Festival co-founder Billy McFarland and others responsible for the event.
