Ego and swagger is an integral part of being a music superstar, but singer Usher recently took that to whole new heights—allegedly paying his bill at a strip club with money that was not only fake, but had his face on it instead of Benjamin Franklin's.
The cringe-worthy incident made him the #1 trending topic on Twitter for quite a while Monday, but thankfully not even Usher is this impressed with himself.
The whole thing has turned out to be a marketing stunt gone wrong.
The flap all began after Usher and his crew visited the Sapphire gentlemen's club in Las Vegas, where they allegedly dropped a stack of bills with Usher's face on it in lieu of a tip.
The fake money was created to promote his Vegas residency at Caesar's Palace, Usher: The Vegas Experience, which opens in July. It seems someone in Usher's retinue dropped the bills on the stage partly as a gag and partly as a way to promote Usher's show.
But reps for the club told TMZ not only did Usher pay his bill for thousands of dollars worth of dances and bottle service but he also tipped the dancers and staff handsomely—with real money featuring the faces of American leaders, not his own.
So in the end, there was a reasonable explanation—but not before a furor ensued surrounding Usher's supposed slight to the dancers and club staff after a dancer posted a call-out of the singer on her Instagram page.
Along with photos of the Usher-backed currency left on the stage, the dancer included an onscreen question:
"What would you ladies do if you danced all night for Usher & he threw [fake money]?"
Now it seems the dancer may be back-tracking a bit, telling social media users she never said Usher only left fake money.
Regardless of the reasonable explanation, Twitter is still having a field day with the stunt.
Let this be a lesson if you're thinking of printing your own currency.
The internet roast may not be worth it.
@WhiteHouse/X
