Edd’s MANtra: Coolio, Financial Genius

A friend of mine shared this story with me, and you know I had to comment. It’s courtesy of theboombox.com:

Nineties rapper Coolio has been hired to play a small venue in Colorado for “$3,000, a bucket of chicken and a bottle of Patron (he likes the Silver variety)” according to the show’s booker. The concert will be held on Sept. 6, at “The Deli Zone” a restaurant in Longmont, whose local paper hails the performance as “the city’s first celebrity performance in recent memory.”

Poor Coolio has been getting a lot of grief for requesting $3,000 and chicken to perform when similarly unattractive rappers like Lil Wayne are getting reportedly $210,000 for shows.

I’m sure we remember the days when Coolio was a pretty big deal and MTV was playing “Gangsta’s Paradise” endlessly. And although his hair still looks as ridiculous as it did in 1995, times are a-changin’.

How much would YOU pay to see Coolio? Probably no more than $10 or $15 – $20 at the most. Coolio ain’t stupid – he knows nobody is going to pay $75 to hear “Fantastic Voyage.” And with such a low performance fee, a brother needs some type of perk.

And who doesn’t love chicken?

I think it’s a pretty sweet deal. All he has to do is perform a couple of 15-year-old rap songs and he gets a few thousand dollars, a three-piece and some disgustingly expensive alcohol to wash it down. An out-of-work rapper can’t beat that. Man, I’d sing Keith Sweat’s greatest hits for $50 and some of that grilled KFC chicken.

A brother has to watch his weight, you know.

So think twice before you snicker at Coolio’s business deals. I don’t know about you, but I respect his hustle.

Um, now that I think of it, Coolio was busted for crack possession a few months back and crackheads aren’t exactly known for their business acumen…