US rapper Coolio, who died at age 59, has been remembered by stars like Michelle Pfeiffer and Snoop Dogg. His manager, Jared Posey, told US media that he was found unresponsive on the bathroom floor of a friend’s LA home.
Coolio, whose real name is Artis Leon Ivey Jr., won a Grammy for Gangsta’s Paradise, the first song on the soundtrack for Dangerous Minds, which came out in 1995.
Pfeiffer, who was in the movie, said that the news made her “heartbroken.” The exact reason why he died on Wednesday is still unknown. But Mr. Posey told TMZ, which broke the news first, that paramedics thought he might have had a heart attack.
Sheila Finegan, Coolio’s manager at Trinity Artists International, said they were “deeply saddened” and that “he touched the world with his talent and will be sorely missed.”
Pfeiffer said that she thought Coolio’s song was “the reason our movie did so well” and that it still gives her “chills” when she hears it.
She wrote on Instagram, “Heartbroken to hear that the talented artist Coolio has died,” and attached a clip from a famous music video in which she sits across the table from Coolio while he raps.
“A life that was cut way too short,” she said next. “I can only remember him being kind.” In Dangerous Minds, Pfeiffer played an ex-Marine who became a teacher and worked in a tough inner-city school on a pilot program for bright but underachieving teens.
Coolio’s haunting track from the album, which used the chorus of Stevie Wonder’s song “Pastime Paradise,” became one of the most popular rap songs of all time and helped bring rap into the mainstream.
It is still listened to by many people, and his official website says it just passed a billion streams on Spotify.
‘At the top of the field’, In the first line of the first verse, Coolio says a line from the Bible: “As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.” He then raps about many different things, including questioning the actions of those around him and wondering if he will “live to see 24.”
The movie made almost £85 million (£78 million) worldwide, and the song was the US’s best-selling record of the year. Coolio won a Grammy for best rap solo performance.
Snoop Dogg paid tribute to the late star online by mentioning this song and posting a picture of himself and Coolio posing on the music video set for Gangsta Walk, a song they worked on together in 2006.
Ice Cube, another rapper and actor, said, “This is sad news. I watched this man work his way to the top of the industry.” Vanilla Ice tweeted, “I’m freaking out. I just heard my good friend Coolio died.”
The rapper MC Hammer said of Coolio, “He’s one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met.” “Good people. RIP Coolio,” he wrote, posting a black-and-white picture of the rapper and later a picture of the two of them with Tupac and Snoop Dogg.
Questlove, a musician and director who won an Oscar, just tweeted, “Peaceful Journey Brother.” Flavor Flav, a rapper, said that he and Coolio were supposed to “perform together this Tuesday.” He called Coolio “the West Coast Flavor Flav” and said his friend loved telling people that.
The singer Debbie Harry wrote “Rest in power,” and the rapper LL Cool J wrote, “Love & Respect” and the same message. Al Yankovic, a musician, put up a picture of him with the late rapper.
RIP Coolio pic.twitter.com/Z53f3n6HDU
— Al Yankovic (@alyankovic) September 29, 2022
Coolio began making music in the 1980s, but when he made Gangsta’s Paradise, he cemented his place in hip-hop history. In the 1990s, he was among the most influential people in the US West Coast rap music scene. He was born in Pennsylvania but grew up in Compton, a suburb of Los Angeles, where his career took off.
The Black Names Project website says that his rap name came from a conversation with a friend who asked him, “Who do you think you are, Coolio Iglesias?” This is where he got his rap name.
Before he did hip-hop full-time, he was a volunteer firefighter in the San Jose area. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times in 1994, he said he did it to “clean up.” “Firefighting training taught me how to be disciplined,” he said. “We ran every day, and I didn’t drink, smoke, or do any of the other things I usually do.”
He didn’t want to be called a gangster rapper. Instead, he wanted to be an all-around entertainer. He is a talented producer and actor who has been in dozens of movies and TV shows, including the 2009 UK version of Celebrity Big Brother.
And he turned his love of food into a book and an online show called Cooking with Coolio. In a career that spanned four decades, he made eight studio albums and won an American Music Award and three MTV Video Music Awards.
Fantastic Voyage, Rollin’ With My Homies, 1, 2, 3, 4 (Something New), and Too Hot were big hits for him. He was still working up until the day he died. Coolio was on tour with other 90s stars like Vanilla Ice and Young MC, and they just played in Texas a few days before he died.
Coolio and his ex-wife, Josefa Salinas, had four kids together. They got married in 1996 and got divorced in 2002. A complete list of his family was not available right away.
