Coolio, the rapper who was among hip-hop’s biggest names of the 1990s with hits including Gangsta’s Paradise and Fantastic Voyage, died today aged 59, his manager said.
Coolio, whose legal name was Artis Leon Ivey Jr., died at the Los Angeles home of a friend, longtime manager Jarez Posey told The Associated Press.
“Coolio went to the bathroom at his friend’s house, but when he didn’t come after a while … the friend kept calling for him, and eventually went in and found Coolio laying on the floor,” Jarez told TMZ today.
TMZ reports friends then called emergency services who pronounced Coolio dead on the scene.
Jarez says the rapper “suffered a cardiac arrest” but an official cause of death has not been announced.
Coolio won a Grammy for best solo rap performance for Gangsta’s Paradise, the 1995 hit from the soundtrack of the Michelle Pfeiffer film Dangerous Minds that sampled Stevie Wonder’s 1976 song Pastime Paradise.
He was nominated for five other Grammys during a career that began in the late-1980s.
Born in Monessen, Pennsylvania south of Pittsburgh, Coolio moved to Compton, California, where he went to community college.
He worked as a volunteer firefighter and in airport security before devoting himself full-time to the hip-hop scene.
His career took off with the 1994 release of his debut album on Tommy Boy Records, It Takes a Thief. It’s opening track, Fantastic Voyage, would reach No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100.
A year later, Gangsta’s Paradise would become a No. 1 single, with its dark opening lyrics:
“As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I take a look at my life and realise there’s not much left, ‘cause I’ve been blastin’ and laughin’ so long, that even my mama thinks that my mind is gone.”
Article from: https://www.1news.co.nz/2022/09/29/rapper-coolio-dies-aged-59-report/
