The rapper Coolio died at the age of 59 in Los Angeles, his manager has confirmed.
The artist, whose real name is Artis Leon Ivey Jr, passed away at a friend’s house, his longtime manager, Jarez Posey, told the Associated Press.
A cause of death was not immediately confirmed.
Coolio is best known for his 1995 single Gangsta’s Paradise, for which he won a Grammy for best solo rap performance. The runaway hit came from the soundtrack of the Michelle Pfeiffer film Dangerous Minds and 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 hip-hop.
His career took off with the 1994 release of his debut album, It Takes a Thief, on Tommy Boy Records. Its 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 haunting opening lyrics: “As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death/ I take a look at my life and realize there’s not much left/ ’cause I’ve been blastin’ and laughin’ so long that/ even my mama thinks that my mind is gone.”
The rapper Coolio died at the age of 59 in Los Angeles, his manager has confirmed.
The artist, whose real name is Artis Leon Ivey Jr, passed away at a friend’s house, his longtime manager, Jarez Posey, told the Associated Press.
A cause of death was not immediately confirmed.
Coolio is best known for his 1995 single Gangsta’s Paradise, for which he won a Grammy for best solo rap performance. The runaway hit came from the soundtrack of the Michelle Pfeiffer film Dangerous Minds and 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 hip-hop.
His career took off with the 1994 release of his debut album, It Takes a Thief, on Tommy Boy Records. Its 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 haunting opening lyrics: “As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death/ I take a look at my life and realize there’s not much left/ ’cause I’ve been blastin’ and laughin’ so long that/ even my mama thinks that my mind is gone.”