Valee‘s favorite salad, it seems safe to assume, is a Caesar salad. He rapped about the romaine lettuce, parmesan flake and crouton delicacy (topped with its namesake savory, creamy sauce) on his breakout single “Miami:” “Bought a Caesar salad and I put the weed in it.” In a 2018 interview with The New York Times he said, “I’m an old man. A big weekend for me is Home Depot and a Caesar salad.”
The Chicago rapper upped the ante on “Pepsi,” a song from his recently released surprise EP, Runnin’ Rich. “Count the money up, I got no callous/I done spent two Gs on salads,” he raps. Rappers tend to embellish, but $2,000 on salads seems… relatively reasonable, presuming it wasn’t all for one meal, and that he isn’t rapping about weed [Ed. note: he’s probably rapping about weed]. In the grand scheme of what musicians do with their money, an enormous amount of salad seems downright responsible.
Below is a breakdown on how far $2,000 stretches in the Caesar salad game, if you’re one of the most inventive rappers working today. Prices are based on the New York and New Jersey locations (there’s a chance Valee’s getting an even better deal elsewhere) of America’s salad-focused fast casual eateries, and are ranked in order of price, not quality.
$2000 / $8.49 Chopt Kale Caesar Salad = 235.57 salads
$2000 / $9.19 Panera Bread Caesar Salad with Chicken = 217.63 salads
$2000 / $9.49 Just Salad Caesar Salad = 210.75 salads
$2000 / $9.38 Saladworks Chicken Caesar Salad = 213.22 salads
$2000 / $10.95 Sweetgreen Kale Caesar = 182.65 salads
Based on the pricing above, the average salad is around $9.50. If Valee’s salad budget is $2,000, it means he could afford around 211 salads. That’s about 4 salads a week, over a year — again, this is presuming that Valee did not spend his budget all at once, and that the salads are not metaphorical — a totally reasonable amount of salad. Rolling Stone did not reach out to Valee or his team for comment, but we may later.