Coolio, was an American rapper best known for his 1995 Grammy Award–winning hit single “Gangsta’s Paradise”, and was born Artis Leon Ivey Jr. on August 1, 1963, in Monessen, Pennsylvania and raised mostly in Compton after his mother and father divorced and his mum moved there when he was eight years old.
He started rapping as a teenager, earning the nickname Coolio Iglesias, after Spanish singer Julio Iglesias, which was later shortened to Coolio. He was arrested for bringing a weapon to school and served prison time for larceny and became addicted to crack cocaine in the 1980s, but quit drugs after spending time living with his father in San Jose. After attending Compton Community College, he had several jobs including being a volunteer firefighting and security at Los Angeles International Airport.
He recorded his first single “Whatcha Gonna Do?” in 1987 and recorded “What Makes You Dance (Force Groove)” with Nu-Skool in 1988.
Coolio made connections in the L.A. rap scene, and in 1991 joined the group WC and the Maad Circle, led by rapper WC. He is a credited co-contributor on the group’s debut album “Ain’t a Damn Thang Changed”, including on the single “Dress Code”
In 1994, Coolio signed to Tommy Boy Records and released his debut solo album “It Takes a Thief” which peaked at Number 8 on the Billboard 200, becoming certified Platinum, and received praise for bringing a humorous and lighthearted perspective to the often violent and profane themes of typical gangsta rap. The lead single from “It Takes a Thief”, “Fantastic Voyage”, received a lot of play on MTV and peaked at Number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became one of the biggest rap singles of the year.
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In 1995, Coolio released “Gangsta’s Paradise”, featuring R&B singer L.V., for the film “Dangerous Minds“. It became one of the most successful rap songs of all time, topping on the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks. It was the Number 1 single of 1995 in the United States for all genres and was a global hit topping the charts in the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Austria, Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Australia, and New Zealand.
“Gangsta’s Paradise” won Coolio a Grammy Award for Best Rap Solo Performance at the 1996 Grammy Awards.
“Gangsta’s Paradise” uses a re-recording, rather than a sampling, of the chorus and music of the song “Pastime Paradise” by Stevie Wonder which was recorded nearly 20 years earlier on Wonder’s album “Songs in the Key of Life”.
Originally “Gangsta’s Paradise” was not meant to be included in one of Coolio’s studio albums, but its success led to Coolio not only putting it on his next album but also making it the title track. The album “Gangsta’s Paradise” was certified two times Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America and sold more than two million copies in US alone.
The album “Gangsta’s Paradise” also contains two other major hits in “1, 2, 3, 4 (Sumpin’ New)” and “Too Hot” with J. T. Taylor of Kool & the Gang doing the chorus.
In 1996, Coolio had another top 40 hit with the song “It’s All the Way Live (Now)” from the soundtrack to the movie “Eddie”, and also featured on the song “Hit ’em High” from the soundtrack to the 1996 film “Space Jam” with B-Real, Method Man, LL Cool J, and Busta Rhymes.
Also in 1996, he appeared on the Red Hot Organization’s compilation CD “America Is Dying Slowly”, alongside Biz Markie, Wu-Tang Clan, and Fat Joe, among many other prominent hip-hop artists, which was meant to raise awareness of the AIDS epidemic among African-American men.
That same year, he recorded the music video “Aw, Here It Goes!” for the opening sequence of the Nickelodeon television series Kenan & Kel, which ran for four seasons.
Coolio’s third solo album, “My Soul”, came out in 1997. Although it contains the major hit “C U When U Get There” and the album went platinum, it failed to reach the success of his previous two albums and Coolio was subsequently dropped from the Tommy Boy Records label.
His next albums, 2001’s “Coolio.com”, 2003’s “El Cool Magnifico”, 2006’s “The Return of the Gangsta”, 2008’s “Steal Hear”, 2009’s “From the Bottom 2 the Top”, and 2017’s” Long Live the Thief” all failled to chart on any Billboard chart. But he did have a minor hit in the UK in 2006 with “Gangsta Walk” (featuring Snoop Dogg).
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Coolio is featured on an international collaboration track called “Fuck the DJ” by UK rapper Blacklisted MC, also featuring Bizarre of D12, Adil Omar (from Pakistan), and Uzimon (from Bermuda). The song premiered on music website Noisey from Vice in October 2014.
In 2014, the band Falling in Reverse did a cover of “Gangsta’s Paradise” for Punk Goes 90s Vol. 2, with Coolio making a cameo in the music video.
In 2019, Coolio appeared on the Irish rap group Versatile’s track “Escape Wagon”, and later featured on their 2021 album, “Fuck Versatile”, on the track “Coolio Interlude”.
Coolio had ten children and in March 2022, he told Australia’s Today Extra that he had five grandchildren.
Coolio was the running mate for pornographic actress Cherie DeVille’s Democratic presidential run in 2020.
On September 28, 2022, while at a friend’s house in Los Angeles, California, Coolio was discovered unresponsive on a bathroom floor. He was pronounced dead by first responders. He was 59 years old at the time of his death and his manager stated later that he appeared to have suffered cardiac arrest.
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