Coolio, whose Nineties music was a staple on radio, a favorite on MTV, and included the hit “Gangsta’s Paradise,” died Wednesday at the age of 59. Coolio’s manager, Jarez Posey, confirmed the rapper’s death to Rolling Stone. A cause of death was not immediately available.
Born Artis Leon Ivey Jr. in 1963, he went to school in Compton, California and attended Compton Community College. He cut his first single in the late 1980s, “Watcha Gonna Do,” a song that was played locally on a hip-hop station. He later connected with WC and the Maad Circle and contributed to their 1991 debut album, Ain’t a Damn Thang Changed.
By 1994, he had established himself in the Los Angeles rap scene and signed to Tommy Boy Records, where he released his debut studio album, It Takes a Thief. Album single “Fantastic Voyage,” accompanied by a playful video, hit Number Three on the Billboard Hot 100.
A year later he dropped his classic “Gangsta’s Paradise,” which appeared in the movie Dangerous Minds. He linked up with gospel-trained singer L.V. for the unexpected haunting track, which tipped to Stevie Wonders’ “Pastime Paradise.”
“I wasn’t really familiar with ‘Pastime Paradise,’ as much of a Stevie Wonder fan as I was,” Coolio told Rolling Stone in an oral history of the song. “My very first album I ever bought was the one with ‘Superwoman’ on it. [1972’s Music of My Mind.] I got that for my 12th birthday, that one and Fight the Power by the Isley Brothers. Songs in the Key of Life, my mother had that album at the house, so it was kind of weird that I didn’t know the song…. I went back inside my manager’s house to use the toilet before I rolled out, and that’s when I heard the track. I walked into the studio, and asked Doug, ‘Wow, whose track is that?’ Doug said, ‘Oh, it’s something I’m working on.’ I said, ‘Well, it’s mine!’”
He added: “I sat down and I started writing. Hearing the bass line, the chorus line and the hook, it just opened up my mind. ‘As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death/I take a look at my life and I see there’s nothing left’ — I freestyled that; that came off the top of the dome and I wrote that down. I thought about it for a minute, and then I wrote the whole rest of the song without stopping, from the first verse to the third verse. You know, I like to believe that it was divine intervention. ‘Gangsta’s Paradise’ wanted to be born; it wanted to come to life, and it chose me as the vessel.”
Tommy Boy reportedly did not think the song would fit for his next album, and added it instead to the film’s soundtrack.
It hit Number One and became 1995’s biggest single. Its success guaranteed its inclusion on his next album titled after the track, and it won a Grammy for Best Solo Rap Performance. While he never released “Rollin’ With My Homies” as a single, the song had an iconic placement in the classic 1995 film, Clueless. His sophomore set produced the hits “1, 2, 3, 4 (Sumpin’ New),” which hit the Top Ten in 1996, and “Too Hot.”
While his music spanned the gangsta rap that was popular in the era, is affable, playful approach to some of his music and videos endeared him to a large audience. He began pursuing acting and he made his on-screen debut in a cameo for 1996 comedy Phat Beach and had a part in 1997’s Batman and Robin.
Coolio released My Soul in 1997, which featured the single “C U When U Get There.” While he ran into some legal trouble that derailed the success of that album, he continued to work in the acting realm, starring as triplets in the film Tyrone and was a regular on Hollywood Squares. His last album was 2009’s From the Bottom 2 the Top.
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