Fentanyl caused ‘Gangsta’s Paradise’ rapper Coolio’s death

LOS ANGELES — Coolio, the rapper who was once amongst hip-hop’s largest names of the Nineties with hits together with “Gangsta’s Paradise” and “Fantastic Voyage,” died ultimate yr as a result of fentanyl, his supervisor stated.

Coolio’s former longtime supervisor Jarez Posey instructed The Associated Press Thursday that Coolio’s reason for death was once fentanyl and that he additionally had strains of heroin and methamphetamine in his device.

The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office indexed his death as unintended and cited cardiomyopathy as a “significant condition.” Posey also confirmed that investigators determined Coolio’s severe asthma and cigarette smoking played a role in his death.

Coolio — born Artis Leon Ivey Jr., on Aug. 1, 1963 — died at the Los Angeles home of a friend on Sept. 28, 2022. He was 59.

Coolio won a Grammy for best solo rap performance for “Gangsta’s Paradise,” the 1995 hit from the soundtrack of the Michelle Pfeiffer movie “Dangerous Minds” that sampled Stevie Wonder’s 1976 track “Pastime Paradise.”

Coolio was once born in Monessen, Pennsylvania, and later moved to Compton, California.

He began rapping at 15 and knew through 18 it was once what he sought after to do along with his existence, he stated in interviews. Coolio attended group faculty prior to devoting himself full-time to the hip-hop scene.

His occupation album gross sales totaled 4.8 million, with 978 million on-demand streams of his songs, in line with Luminate. He could be nominated for a complete of six Grammys.

With his unique individual, he was a cultural staple, appearing every so often, offering a voice for an animated display and offering the theme track for a Nickelodeon sitcom.

Coolio’s property plans to liberate a studio album later this yr that he have been operating on within the days prior to he died.