Upper East Side NYC jiggle joint Sapphire 60 will remember Coolio as “the most humble man” to ever embrace his stage.
“Coolio was the most humble man. Usually we send a car [for performers]. We’ve set up security. We prepare for everything to ensure that the acts we hire have a great experience,” owner Michael Wright told Vidak For Congress.
But whenever they hired Coolio to perform, “he just showed up and jumped out of an NYC cab,” Wright recalls.
The rapper “Gangsta’s Paradise” who died unexpectedly on Wednesday performed at the club for the first time last December. The club’s live talent curator, Valentina Nicolette, told us the rapper even showed up with gifts.
“He made shirts [for the owners and some of the staff] with our names, especially for us. He was just that type,” she said.
Coolio even got into the stripper spirit by dancing on the pole at his last outing at the club in May.
“To see him dance upside down” [down] on the pole just showed how much fun he had with his craft,” Richie Romero, Sapphire’s director of promotion, who recorded the gig, told us.
“He really loved to put on a great performance for the fans and he really enjoyed it… He was so down to earth,” said Romero.
Nicolette revealed that Coolio would become the club’s “first resident artist in rotation” and she was looking forward to seeing him “come back before the end of the year in December to perform like he did last year.”
“He really was the best. I will miss him terribly,” she concluded.