Hulu just put theirs out, Netflix has one coming out in two days. Some controversy, as the Netflix one was co-produced with one of the companies (Jerry Media) involved in the festival, while Hulu actually paid convicted fraudster Billy MacFarland to appear in theirs.

Watched the Hulu one last night. Pretty good, I most enjoyed the on the ground reports form the people who had to try and actually put this thing together. Delroy from the Bahamas was the only person involved who seemed to understand that there was zero chance this would ever happen, could've used more of him. The only person who comes off worse than MacFarland (who added absolutely nothing except to confirm he's a complete sociopath with no skills outside of conning people) to me was the guy who started the Fyre Fraud Twitter account, since he was apparently fine with them scamming people but DREW THE FUCKING LINE at scamming Comcast out of it's hard-earned money. And he really wanted Ja Rule to go to prison, but I'm not sure what for.

It's hilarious/sad how easy it is to con people out of large sums of money by offering them something virtually indistinguishable from the "normal" level of scamming that people are allowed to get away with every day.

but I'm assuming his issue with comcast was knowing that screwing over investors at that level is something the police won't let go

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

There were so many people who talked and virtually all of them looked the same.

but it seemed like that was the point where it went from "oh this is funny and probably illegal but likely small potatoes to OH SHIT FED TIME COMIN"
www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

*************************************

Fuck aliens

-Warriorpoet415

https://astackofwax.com/

#2dopebrothersandastackofwax

https://www.instagram.com/thirtythree.three/

The Greatest Story (N)ever Told (finished)

http://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=s

fine with regular people being scammed?!? Dude was the loudest and earliest person ringing the alarm that the whole event was a Fraud?

I would also add I also don't have ALOT of sympathy for the rich kids dickwads who went to the festival. The folks I felt most sympathy for was the local workers who went months without payment and even had to come out of pocket.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

on the emptiness of social media culture AND how committing to a lie and bullshitting can get you so far in Trump's America.

Highly Recommend.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

How did anyone think they could pull this off on an island.

I would’ve never stayed on til the end.

and dude who claimed he didn’t suck a dick is lying. Why even tell that story?

The on the ground footage was more intriguing than the "here's what this says about millenials and influencer culture" approach of the Hulu one. But they both play like two parts of the same story in parts, and I'm fascinated by the subject. I recommend both if you can do it.

The Netflix doc was more single minded in its approach in that it was all about chronicling the process of the "crimes" themselves, and had lots of great footage on the ground.

The Hulu version got a little too cutesy with the stock footage and the snippets from tangentially-related pop culture. Though I always appreciate a good Parks and Rec reference and the Chapelle snippets will never not be funny. I do think it also provided some valuable background on McFarland. I didn't know anything about Magnisys, and I found the section on it fascinating.

I think Ja Rule came across like a fucking clown in both of the films, but I don't know buy that he was anything more than a figure. Him talking on Drink Champs like it was all his idea were ultra-drunk ramblings.

I felt bad for the Bahamians who were involved in the event, especially the day laborers and the poor restaurant owners who blow through her savings to pay people off. I also felt bad for the app. developers, and the guys who said that McFarland ran up huge debt on their personal credit cards, then bounced. And I did feel bad for the guy who they tried to make suck dick for bottled water.

That said - anyone who buys into the Netflix, Jerry Media-produces bullshit is naive and dumb. Billy was very bad but there were people who enabled him.

to fully understand how terrible a person he was and how his sociopathy worked.

I even fell for it. I was like, "how the fuck did he lose the box with all of the keys to the villas?" My wife was like, "Fool, he is a pathological liar. Why would you even take that bullshit story at face value?" Then I slapped my forehead.




**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

I don’t need to see his interview to know that.

Haven’t seen the Hulu one yet.

He's exactly who he is. They coulda saved the money they paid him.

stars and hucksters.

If dude never forged documents and made false statements to investors in SEC filings, he'd be out here today raising millions of dollars for his next tech venture.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

On some Lord of the Flies shit.

A bunch of super rich kids get stranded on an island and begin to fight each other to the death for supplies.

Lord of the Fyre.


---------------------------------------


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The app idea wasn’t a bad idea either.

Fyre Festival would've leapfrogged past so many festivals with its luxury angle.
---------------------------------------


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instead of 2017. And it might've been huge.

mofo show up in a purple label sweater, sunglasses, and a sheet of paper, walks out wit $3M. Then does it Again and again and again.

Lol at the dude Andy...that guy just wanted to duckk some sickk, cmon. "Take 1 for the team"? Riiiiight


I remember when the tweets and memes started coming out... Hilarious.

Those rows of disaster tents at night looked spooky....And interesting how a collection of rich/hipsters/models/bros/millennials descends into Lord of the flies in less than 24 hrs. If they had to stay another night, between ppl stealing/fighting over resources and the locals getting mad, somebody woulda def been really hurt


And the ridiculous social media/clout side of this is a whole nother topic.
That $250,000 they paid Kendall Jenner to repost a scam pic with a hashtag, prolly woulda covered all the local workers' fees for building the whole festival from scratch. And if there ever was a way for folks to get there money back, I'm sure those same day laborers would be last on the totem pole. They shoulda walked off the job after the 1st 2weeks

They prolly spent zero dollars on actual building materials.

They spent all their money on booze, chicks and flying back and forth to those islands.

Never heard of this Billy dude

At the time, all I remember is Ja's name being the catalyst for the festival

Even if he didn't know what was going on on the ground, still doesn't make sense that he's not responsible for some kind of fraud

I'm sure investors were enticed by having a celebrity partnered with Fyre

I didn't even know there was an app/service associated with Fyre

I only remember the festival

The app/service sounded like a good idea too

What's truly frightening is that it took a failure of this magnitude for dude to get taken down

If they didn't have a festival, and just launched

Dude's probably still free to defraud investors and scam the public

The Bernie Madoff of start ups.

I thought Ja was just a face but dude is on the phone admitting he was in on the scam.

or maybe he is used to promoters doing shady shit

or he beat the feds and has a lifetime pass

>or he beat the feds and has a lifetime pass

This ain't the streets. Feds came knocking was probably up on the chair like: https://s.newsweek.com/sites/www.newsweek.com/files/styles/embed-lg/public/2014/11/17/1121eyewitness05.jpg


Ja was probably high-as-fuck and just rolled with shit. He just doesn't look like he masterminded anything.

... roast Ja for that bullshit. Or at least react with one massive eyeroll and sigh. I was fuming siting on my couch when he said that.

So they swallowed his BS and talked shit about him in the group text



*************************************

Fuck aliens

-Warriorpoet415

#2dopebrothersandastackofwax

https://www.instagram.com/thirtythree.three/

The Greatest Story (N)ever Told (finished)

http://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=s

Before watching the doc I was curious how anyone would face jail time for what was ultimately false advertising, a crime that usually involves civil penalties (ja was right).

The crime that got dude jail time was forging documents and SEC violations for misleading investors.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

Though I think he probably knew about Billy's out on bail ticket scam, I don't think there's any evidence connecting him to that business.

all the number forging and report doctoring to mislead investors is what got Billy hemmed up.

Ja was just along for the ride.
Though he was also lucky that Billy did not try to implicate him.

The way Billy spoke about Ja and made it clear he had nothing to do with the Fraud gave me the impression that Ja made clear he could get touched if he implicated him in the fraud in any way.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

I only watched the Netflix doc. And that scene where the chick rolls her eyes at him when he's like "get in the fucking water !" was cringe-inducing.

I think the folks in the Netflix doc were painting McFarland with a little too sympathetic a brush. Guy is a total piece of shit and they were all like "he'll be back." Talking about him crying and shit. Fuck him.

I was truly appalled by the NYC VIP shit. I mean who does this dude think he is.

Those poor poor workers in the Bahamas man. My heart broke for all of them. Yet that dude at the end who took the call from McFarland and still sounded excited to hear from him ... ugh. Can't possibly hate McFarland more.

for fyre lol. the fuckjerry people.

the hulu one covered billy like the scammer he was.

do a good job....

from the bullshit.

the kids, the investors, etc.

a brotha/sista woulda been like 'yeah nah...this nigga billy fufu'.

i mean...black people pretty much knew not to trust it when they saw ja lol.

Great idea on the surface but pretty much turned into the titanic headed straight for an iceberg.

Fools were rearranging deck chairs and screaming “Turn up the music”

with him...willingly...RIGHT after dude got out on bail ! lol....

The hell were THEY thinking???

"Get ready....for your blessing....."

Nothing about their last venture screamed legal or legit.

I'm in Atlanta. This they headquarters.

And though having Jerry Media collecting a percentage is a little sketchy, ultimately I think it's way less shady than the Hulu doc paying Billy since including Jerry is what allowed so much of the behind the scenes, on the ground footage of the commercial shoot party and the planning or lack thereof. I'd rather have that stuff than not.


When they switched over to the other production company, that guy Kindo, I thought it was funny how much that resembled an actual movie plotline. Dude gets hemmed up, brings in an even sketchier business partner who's willing to go all the way dirty from the get-go, and brings in a younger, hungrier production team as well to get all the foul play on tape and incriminate himself all over again.


Plus, Frank Tribble, Jr.? That name is such a *chef's kiss* of a scam artist.


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

Ja comes off as an ass, that's for sure. He's not going to jail (they got Billy on wire fraud, not bilking everyone out of their money), but his name should be mud for any business venture going forward. His 'not fraud...false advertising' quote should follow him for the rest of his life

Ja Rule was always the recognizable mark that could give the endeavor credibility and validation while also siphoning some of the heat when things would eventually go south. Notice how he was front and center more than Billy during the fall out. Billy was MIA on purpose, I believe.

When Billy tried to pull another scam with the Fyre Fest email list, he had another guy (Frank) as the new fall guy who would be 'the face' of the venture. Billy's just slime and he definitely knows it even if he doesn't show it.
---------------------------------------


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is probably your most efficient use of time

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

on a cruise. Same principle, all inclusive with the specialized lounging, and with the acts on the ship. That would have prevented the issues with the infrastructure. Then dock in certain cities. Even would work for booking the entertainment and onsite meetings with the talent via the app.

Unfortunately they had no one apparently who knew about event and production coordination. Such a wasted opportunity, and they are shit for stealing from the Bahamas folks who put all that free labor up.

and also the time/infrastucture

but you're right, in that they succeeded in the hardest parts: getting people to buy tickets to an event that had never happened, and booking talent for the event

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

I doibt you can get a whole cruise ship on short notice too.

now, pull it all off somehow a la Woodstock, like the Netflix doc mentioned), and keep doing it again and again going forward.

The change-up to a cruise would have been a good way to save it, but would probably have yielded less money right now, and his greed wouldn't allow that.

use in their stories.

"He would disappear for a bit, then come back with so much energy talking about the need to buy a pirate ship and telling everyone we just need to keep going forward."

A guy who actually had the money this required and a little foresight could've made this dumb thing work.

Not like Netflix is censored.


>use in their stories.
>
>"He would disappear for a bit, then come back with so much
>energy talking about the need to buy a pirate ship and telling
>everyone we just need to keep going forward."
>
>A guy who actually had the money this required and a little
>foresight could've made this dumb thing work.

Don't even bother watching the Netflix one. It's done by the FuckJerry team and they go easy on themselves, of course.

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

If Billy had made some deal with the customs guy that one of his team take one for the team, did the customs guy somehow have his heart set on some dude who was pushing AARP status?

Wouldn't the customs guy push for some young 'influencer' type fellow?
Maybe he got there, and customs guy saw him and said, nah we're good

Weird story.

Fascinating stuff though. I only saw the netflix one

I have zero doubt about that.

Remember the dude who brought it up said, 'I won't say what he did. Let him tell you.'

as in relating it to attraction instead of just power/control, coming from both Billy and Customs guy.

I bet Billy had the rest of his team in the room when he called Andy.

"He bought it!" *insert Ray Liotta laugh*

I dunno how the Bahamas are with sexuality but I highly doubt a public official is openly asking for gay sexual favors as a bribe down there.

Customs guy probably just wanted someone from the team to come down to the office so he could have an off-the-record convo that he was going to give them a break and Billy, being a manipulative asshole, decided to have some fun with his most trusting supporter.

I think each documentary was informative in its own way. You guys have pretty much said everything that I thought.

But I believe he may have been in debt to some shady characters. That's the only reason I can think of him starting that NYC VIP scam while he's out on bail. Maybe he absolutely had to try to pay them back or some bad things were gonna happen to him or his family.

Ja Rule came off like a clown too. Did anyone check his IConn talent booking site? https://iconn.me/ I'm a little surprised that the whole Fyre thing didn't ruin his rep. I would think these documentaries should put a dent in it.

came from some kind of loan shark, probably mob connected.

"Get ready....for your blessing....."

this is supposed to be a joke for real right??



"Get ready....for your blessing....."

Wow

And it sounded like the worst thing ever to me. A music festival that costs 10s of thousands of dollars to go to. I remember telling my friends "being at a music festival with the kinds of people who can afford this shit and would actually be willing to spend the money to go to this shit sounds like literal hell to me."

I only watch the Netflix doc so far. And this shit was both hilarious and confusing to me. I do not understand and am incredibly amused at the level of bullshit Billy was spewing and that people were willing to just go with. White privilege like a muhfucker. Dude walks into a meeting with an idea that sounds too out there and walks out with millions. I wanna know more about that blonde woman who was bankrolling him. I got some ideas I wanna sell her.

And honestly, I do not give a fuck that he defrauded all those dumb ass rich kids out of their money. Not with Fyre Fest, Not with NYC VIP, not with his original company. I gives no fuck. The kinds of people who are/would be into that kinda shit are the worst people. The only people I felt bad for are the Bahamians. They deserve better than that, they deserve recompense.

I was crying.

*************************************

Fuck aliens

-Warriorpoet415

#2dopebrothersandastackofwax

https://www.instagram.com/thirtythree.three/

The Greatest Story (N)ever Told (finished)

http://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=s

>And it sounded like the worst thing ever to me. A music
>festival that costs 10s of thousands of dollars to go to. I
>remember telling my friends "being at a music festival with
>the kinds of people who can afford this shit and would
>actually be willing to spend the money to go to this shit
>sounds like literal hell to me."

The worst was that Asian guy bragging about peeing on nearby tents so him and his crew wouldn't have any neighbors. I bet he's awesome co-worker and neighbor in real life.

I did find it interesting that Magnises primarily attracted affluent wannabes from Jersey rather than the actual "cool kids". I'm sure it was the same deal with the festival.

feels so appropriate.

Because if there was a rapper who should be involved in a scam to get a bunch of rich IG kids to an island in the Bahamas for a nonexistent music fest, 50 Cent would be my first, second and third guess.

But they didn't even have him, just the guy he cleared out of the way back in 2003.

In both docs. I kept thinking why is this guy being such a busybody about this whole thing? He kept framing it like he was only being a good samaritan whistleblower but it seemed personal.

>The only person who comes off worse than MacFarland (who
>added absolutely nothing except to confirm he's a complete
>sociopath with no skills outside of conning people) to me was
>the guy who started the Fyre Fraud Twitter account, since he
>was apparently fine with them scamming people but DREW THE
>FUCKING LINE at scamming Comcast out of it's hard-earned
>money. And he really wanted Ja Rule to go to prison, but I'm
>not sure what for.