Nineties rapper Coolio has been hired to play a small venue in Colorado for a "$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."

"Where's Longmont at?" Coolio is quoted as saying, in response to being asked by the Longmont Times-Call if he'd ever been to visit the city, which was recently named one of the top 50 places to live by Money Magazine. "My hope is that Coolio is going to give us ... some recognition," said the restaurant's owner, Jeremy King. "I'm hoping to get a cool reputation as a cool place to come see music."

The 'Fantastic Voyage' rapper has had a slippery ride of late, losing his "irreverent" reality parenting show, "Coolio's Rules" and getting publicly groped by an Italian model, amongst other bizarre incidents.

"I'm really excited about the possibility of Longmont becoming a hot spot for music," stated Jimmy Macias, the venue's excited young booker about the upcoming performance. Besides booking the Zone, the 24 year-old is a rapper in a group called 2 Real 4 da Mind (!), who will also open for Coolio.

In other The Zone news, the restaurant has booked Bizzy Bone, of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony to perform on Sept. 19.