We ran into the red hot rapper Tuesday at LAX, where we congratulated him on his new album, "A Gangsta's Pain" -- which is getting tons of praise, and also jacking up his rate for shows. Moneybagg confirms it's a cool $200k to book him now.

That's a huge leap from where he was just a year ago ... check out what MBY says he used to charge not too long ago. Not to get all math-y on ya -- but it's an 80% increase!

You can see Moneybagg's crowds have gotten exponentially bigger over the past year or so. Not just that, but he's starting to gain some ground with new, broader audiences ... due, in part, to appearances on the 'Tonight Show' and elsewhere.

Clearly, things are going well for him -- and it also sounds like he's being smart with his money ... telling us he definitely does some spending, but throws some in the bank as well.

Since he likes to flaunt a bit, we had to ask ... as his stacks continue to pile up, what's the big-ticket item he's eyeing???

His answer might surprise you a bit -- seems like he might wanna dip his toe into real estate, but on a larger scale than just one new crib.