Baku: Coolio wowed rap fans in Baku as part of his seven-month tour across Europe, the Middle East and the CIS. Coolio spent almost two days in Baku, met with US Ambassador Reno Harnish and addressing issues concerning local youth. Despite his good nature, the rapper allegedly offended Azerbaijani viewers with a lewd gesture during a television interview. Coolio also aggravated security at his concert, by urging those in attendance to "get up and dance." Security protested and Coolio and his hypeman Gangsta Lu told the crowd that the show would be stopped unless everyone returned to their seats. Some questioned as to why Coolio went to Baku to perform, when not many international acts stop to perform. "I came to Baku the same way I would go to Texas," Coolio retorted. "Because they asked me to come and play hip hop," he told me.