Bad Bunny dropped $50K at Philly’s Sin City nightclub before his MIA performance, owner says

Before Puerto Rican rapper and singing sensation Bad Bunny ignited a dance party on the Ben Franklin Parkway Sunday night, he triggered more euphoria by spending $50,000 on dancers and drinks at Sin City Cabaret Nightclub in Southwest Philly, a very proud owner of the gentlemen’s club said Monday.

“That’s probably one of the highest” spends by a single patron since the club opened during the pandemic, Gus Drakopoulos said in a phone interview. “He’s a spender. He wants to have a good time.”

Even, apparently, the night before a big performance. Drakopoulos said Bad Bunny and an entourage of “five to 10″ arrived at the club on Passyunk Avenue near 61st Street between 12:30 and 1 a.m. Sunday, some 21 hours before he was due to take the main stage downtown at Made In America as the first Latinx headliner in the two-day music festival’s 10-year history.

There was no pretension, Drakopoulos said.

“It was a simple hello,” he said of his interaction with Bad Bunny. “He just wanted to chill out and hang out.”

Why Sin City? Drakopoulos said Bad Bunny was familiar with its predecessor of the same name in the Bronx, which Drakopoulos opened in 2002. He said it was frequented by many artists and athletes, including Mike Tyson, Jamie Foxx, Puff Daddy, and Philly’s own Meek Mill. Rapper Cardi B was a dancer there for three years “before she made it big herself,” Drakopoulos said.

About “20 to 30″ dancers at Philly’s Sin City (the Bronx one is no more) benefited from most of Bad Bunny’s spending early Sunday morning, Drakopoulos said. Not all of them entertained him. “He shared the money among his crew to spend,” Drakopoulos said. About $45,000 went to the dancers; the other $5,000 for drinks, he said.

A video of a person with the same build inside Sin City started making the rounds Sunday. But the person’s face was largely covered so it was unclear who it was. A spokesperson for Bad Bunny could not immediately be reached Sunday.

That was “1,000%” Bad Bunny, said Drakopoulos. He said the world’s most streamed artist had most of his face covered with a bandanna and wore a hat for most of the time he was inside Sin City, which was “packed” with about 250 patrons.

Not that there was much interaction with them.

“He was in our VIP skybox” above the main floor, said Drakopoulos, adding that he got to see Bad Bunny without his face covered.

He stayed “until the lights went on. It was around 2:30,” he said

It was a big get for a club owner whose opening was all the more challenging because of COVID-related imposed restrictions, including limits on occupancy and hours of operation that have finally been lifted.

“It just goes to show me how well the brand is appreciated,” said Drakopoulos, noting as “the largest international artist in the world” Bad Bunny could have gone anywhere that night.

Drakopoulos showed the megastar his appreciation.

“We did give him a Sin City hat on his way out,” he said.