Ja Rule’s NFT fans aren’t worried about another Fyre Fest

Photo by Arturo Holmes/Getty Images

Ja Rule has a lot of things attached to his name. There was a random Greek restaurant, a tax prep company, and his ill-fated ventures with fraudster Billy McFarland as a co-founder of the notorious Fyre Festival. Ja Rule added an NFT project to his portfolio last year without much fanfare or media attention.

The project, called Club Cards, is a series of NFT trading cards of other NFT projects. Each release is in partnership with another NFT series. Ja Rule is listed as a co-founder on the Club Cards website, and he frequently uses social media to promote his projects. In the case of one lucky club member, an all-expenses-paid trip to New York City to see Ja Rule perform, club members can register for a chance to win.

How is that going?

Apparently, better than the festival. The winner of the first New York trip was a recent college graduate from Arkansas who brought his girlfriend, who was a plus one. They were supposed to fly out on a Thursday in January to make it in time for the Ja Rule concert.

Asked if he was nervous about the trip given Ja Rule's track record of disastrous getaways, he said he didn't initially make the connection with the festival.

I told one of my friends about the trip, and they were like, "Is Ja Rule?"

He likes to have his schedule locked down ahead of time, so he can know when the flight is, how they'll get to the hotel, and where they'll eat. Communication with Ja Rule's camp was sporadic and occasionally delayed, but he trusted they would be taken care of. After seeing Ja Rule perform at Sony Hall, Hawron and his girlfriend met the artist and his team.

He seems really genuine, and he was just like that when we walked back there.

A couple was put up in a hotel in Times Square and spent the next day shopping and taking pictures.

He hasn't made millions flipping token for profit and mostly buys them as a hobby, but he approaches NFTs with a healthy dose of skepticism. He consolidated the NFTs he owned at the end of the year, mostly selling them off for a loss.

Most of the NFT stuff will eventually be worthless.

He feels differently about the handful of Club Cards he holds, which were purchased for 0.05 ETH, a steal compared to the Fyre Festival ticket. Though his cards haven't increased in value since he bought them, he intends to hold on to them. The project's founder and creative director, Josh, is active in the Discord and seems to have a vision for the future, including another New York trip to see Ja Rule live.

Josh said that the project has sold 700 NFTs so far, and that the community is still relatively small. Ja Rule's involvement in Club Cards has been instrumental in its success.

For those who have been in the space for a while, it's often obvious that a lot of celebrities dip in and out.

Club Cards has had three releases with collaborations with Ja Rule or another NFT project. The mission of the Rascals is to unite a new era of digital hypebeasts by growing the brand together as a community.

Ja Rule is happy to cosign what's to come, it's insane.