Charleston brings in big name rapper
Recording artist and rapper Chingy will perform at the Penalty Box for the Mardi Gras Extravaganza event this Saturday.
The event will be going on all weekend starting today with the festivities being kicked off by Kori and Sydney from Season 6 of “The Bad Girls Club,” who will be judging “the first ever EIU’S Baddest Girl Contest.”
The winner will receive a cash prize, gift bag and a meet and greet VIP pass with Kori, Sydney, Chingy and DJ Charlie Chan Soprano (who will be spinning the VIP pre-party).
On Saturday, EIU’s “So You Think You Can Rap” winner RENEGADE will open for Chingy.
Chingy will perform his top hits on Saturday, plus many other songs.
Penalty Box owner Peter Christos said he worked out a deal with a promotion company in order to host the event.
Christos said Little City Promotions came to him with an organized business plan.
Tenaucah Little, the CEO of Little City Promotions said he is in charge of planning the event and his friendship with Chingy helped move the event in the right direction.
Kevin Hunt, a sub-promoter for the event, said he has done promotions in the past, but only with clubs, restaurants and bars in St. Louis.
Hunt has been looking forward to this particular event since the planning began.
Hunt said he and Little were scouting potential hosts for Chingy’s concert and found that The Penalty Box was the right fit for the event.
“We wanted a name with some draw to it, and Chingy is a big name that still has appeal and can be beneficial to the EIU students,” Hunt said.
Hunt said he felt the location was good because it was close to campus and relatively reachable for most students in the area.
After talking with Christos., Hunt said he wanted to bring good events to the area to work with the college crowd.
“We were open for all ideas, and Pete was willing to come on board and let us use his establishment,” Little said. “In planning this, I want to give the audience a chock full of surprises related to the Mardi Gras theme that the event is based on.”
Little said he also talked personally to Kori and Sydney of The Bad Girls Club and wanted to select women that the general public would enjoy.
“We wanted to select girls that the public will like and are fairly popular with the general public, and so we came across Kori and Sydney,” Little said.
Weekend passes for the event are $25. Christos’s goal is to sell out tickets by today. However, if the tickets do not sell out, then he will offer daily passes for $15 today and $20 Saturday at the door.
Little said the event, which can be found on Facebook, has more than 580 confirmed guests and he, along with Hunt, said they would like to plan future events in the Charleston area if this event goes well.
VIP entry to the event will begin promptly at 7 p.m., while general admission entry will begin at 9 p.m.
Jose Gonzalez can be reached at 581-7944 or
