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Coolio, ‘Gangsta’s Paradise’ rapper, dead at 59
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David Samuel Barr
Sep 29, 2022, 8:51:26 AM9/29/22
to
After losing Shock G at 57 last year losing
another of our crew at 59 is quite a blow.
I wasn't as close with Coolio as some of
the other artists we launched but I've got
mostly good memories of his time with us.
(At least I still get to see Latifah ["L'il
Dana" to me] on TV every week, although
Mr Biggs's car warranty commercials with
Ice-T seem to have run their course.)
=====
Coolio, ‘Gangsta’s Paradise’ rapper, dead at 59
By Sandra Gonzalez, CNN
Updated 3:42 AM EDT, Thu September 29, 2022
Coolio, the ’90s rapper who lit up the music charts with hits like
“Gangsta’s Paradise” and “Fantastic Voyage,” has died, his friend and
manager Jarez Posey, told CNN. He was 59.
Posey said Coolio died Wednesday afternoon.
Details on the circumstances were not immediately available.
When contacted by CNN, Capt. Erik Scott of the Los Angeles Fire
Department confirmed that firefighters and paramedics responded to a
call on the 2900 block of South Chesapeake Ave. at 4 p.m. local time for
reports of a medical emergency. When they arrived, they found an
unresponsive male and performed “resuscitation efforts for approximately
45 minutes.”
The patient “was determined dead just before 5:00 p.m.,” Scott said.
“We are saddened by the loss of our dear friend and client, Coolio, who
passed away this afternoon,” a statement provided to CNN from Coolio’s
talent manager Sheila Finegan said.
“He touched the world with the gift of his talent and will be missed
profoundly. Thank you to everyone worldwide who has listened to his
music and to everyone who has been reaching out regarding his passing.
Please have Coolio’s loved ones in your thoughts and prayers.”
Actor Lou Diamond Phillips also offered his condolences as he recounted
some memories with the artist.
“I am absolutely stunned. Coolio was a friend and one of the warmest,
funniest people I’ve ever met. We spent an amazing time together making
Red Water in Capetown and we loved going head to head in the kitchen. He
was one of a kind. Epic,Legendary and I’ll miss him,” Phillips said in a
tweet.
Former NBA player Matt Bonner also recalled time spent with Coolio,
saying in a Twitter post the rapper was a “huge hoops fan… we hosted him
at a game a few years back… biggest crowd of all-time at a Spurs
Overtime concert.”
Coolio grew up in Compton, California, according to a bio on his
official website.
Speaking to the Los Angeles Times in 1994, he recalled falling into the
drug scene but getting himself out by pursuing a career as a firefighter.
“I wasn’t looking for a career, I was looking for a way to clean up – a
way to escape the drug thing,” he told the publication. “It was going to
kill me and I knew I had to stop. In firefighting training was
discipline I needed. We ran every day. I wasn’t drinking or smoking or
doing the stuff I usually did.”
His rap career began in the ’80s, and he gained fame in the underground
scene.
“Fantastic Voyage” was the first song that really put him on the map.
Arguably his biggest song, “Gangsta’s Paradise,” from the soundtrack to
the film “Dangerous Minds,” grew his star power to gigantic proportions.
He won a Grammy in 1996 for the song.
In the age of streaming, it has continued to live on. In July 2022, the
song reached a milestone one billion views on YouTube.
“It’s one of those kinds of songs that transcends generations,” he said
in a recent interview. “I didn’t use any trendy words…I think it made it
timeless.”
Over his career, Coolio sold more than 17 million records, according to
his website.
Coolio also has a special place in the hearts of some Millennials for
his work on the theme song for the popular Nickelodeon TV series “Kenan
and Kel” and his contribution to the album “Dexter’s Laboratory: The
Hip-Hop Experiment,” which featured songs by various hip-hop artists
that were inspired by the Cartoon Network animated series.
In recent years, Coolio enjoyed the perks of being a nostalgic figure,
making television appearances on shows like “Celebrity Cook Off” and
“Celebrity Chopped.”
He also had a show on Oxygen, “Coolio’s Rules,” that aired 2008.
CNN’s Megan Thomas and Taylor Romine contributed to this report.
another of our crew at 59 is quite a blow.
I wasn't as close with Coolio as some of
the other artists we launched but I've got
mostly good memories of his time with us.
(At least I still get to see Latifah ["L'il
Dana" to me] on TV every week, although
Mr Biggs's car warranty commercials with
Ice-T seem to have run their course.)
=====
Coolio, ‘Gangsta’s Paradise’ rapper, dead at 59
By Sandra Gonzalez, CNN
Updated 3:42 AM EDT, Thu September 29, 2022
Coolio, the ’90s rapper who lit up the music charts with hits like
“Gangsta’s Paradise” and “Fantastic Voyage,” has died, his friend and
manager Jarez Posey, told CNN. He was 59.
Posey said Coolio died Wednesday afternoon.
Details on the circumstances were not immediately available.
When contacted by CNN, Capt. Erik Scott of the Los Angeles Fire
Department confirmed that firefighters and paramedics responded to a
call on the 2900 block of South Chesapeake Ave. at 4 p.m. local time for
reports of a medical emergency. When they arrived, they found an
unresponsive male and performed “resuscitation efforts for approximately
45 minutes.”
The patient “was determined dead just before 5:00 p.m.,” Scott said.
“We are saddened by the loss of our dear friend and client, Coolio, who
passed away this afternoon,” a statement provided to CNN from Coolio’s
talent manager Sheila Finegan said.
“He touched the world with the gift of his talent and will be missed
profoundly. Thank you to everyone worldwide who has listened to his
music and to everyone who has been reaching out regarding his passing.
Please have Coolio’s loved ones in your thoughts and prayers.”
Actor Lou Diamond Phillips also offered his condolences as he recounted
some memories with the artist.
“I am absolutely stunned. Coolio was a friend and one of the warmest,
funniest people I’ve ever met. We spent an amazing time together making
Red Water in Capetown and we loved going head to head in the kitchen. He
was one of a kind. Epic,Legendary and I’ll miss him,” Phillips said in a
tweet.
Former NBA player Matt Bonner also recalled time spent with Coolio,
saying in a Twitter post the rapper was a “huge hoops fan… we hosted him
at a game a few years back… biggest crowd of all-time at a Spurs
Overtime concert.”
Coolio grew up in Compton, California, according to a bio on his
official website.
Speaking to the Los Angeles Times in 1994, he recalled falling into the
drug scene but getting himself out by pursuing a career as a firefighter.
“I wasn’t looking for a career, I was looking for a way to clean up – a
way to escape the drug thing,” he told the publication. “It was going to
kill me and I knew I had to stop. In firefighting training was
discipline I needed. We ran every day. I wasn’t drinking or smoking or
doing the stuff I usually did.”
His rap career began in the ’80s, and he gained fame in the underground
scene.
“Fantastic Voyage” was the first song that really put him on the map.
Arguably his biggest song, “Gangsta’s Paradise,” from the soundtrack to
the film “Dangerous Minds,” grew his star power to gigantic proportions.
He won a Grammy in 1996 for the song.
In the age of streaming, it has continued to live on. In July 2022, the
song reached a milestone one billion views on YouTube.
“It’s one of those kinds of songs that transcends generations,” he said
in a recent interview. “I didn’t use any trendy words…I think it made it
timeless.”
Over his career, Coolio sold more than 17 million records, according to
his website.
Coolio also has a special place in the hearts of some Millennials for
his work on the theme song for the popular Nickelodeon TV series “Kenan
and Kel” and his contribution to the album “Dexter’s Laboratory: The
Hip-Hop Experiment,” which featured songs by various hip-hop artists
that were inspired by the Cartoon Network animated series.
In recent years, Coolio enjoyed the perks of being a nostalgic figure,
making television appearances on shows like “Celebrity Cook Off” and
“Celebrity Chopped.”
He also had a show on Oxygen, “Coolio’s Rules,” that aired 2008.
CNN’s Megan Thomas and Taylor Romine contributed to this report.
J.D. Baldwin
Sep 29, 2022, 3:06:49 PM9/29/22
to
Well, at least he lived to see 24.
--
_+_ From the catapult of |If anyone objects to any statement I make, I am
_|70|___:)=}- J.D. Baldwin |quite prepared not only to retract it, but also
\ / bal...@panix.com|to deny under oath that I ever made it.-T. Lehrer
***~~~~----------------------------------------------------------------------
Kenny McCormack
Sep 30, 2022, 8:51:28 AM9/30/22
to
In article <th4qc5$bld$1...@reader2.panix.com>,
Yeah, my thoughts exactly.
My first reaction on seeing this post's Subject line was "For a rapper, he
lived to a ripe old age."
My second reaction was "He certainly beat the average life expectancy for
his profession."
So, good on ya!
P.S. In fact, I'd like to see a table of life expectancy by occupation.
Would be interesting to see.
--
The single most important statistic in the US today - the one that explains all the
others - is this: 63 million people thought it was a good idea to vote for this clown
(and will probably do so again). Everything else is secondary to that. Everything else
could be fixed if we can revert this one statistic. Nothing can be fixed until we do.
Yeah, my thoughts exactly.
My first reaction on seeing this post's Subject line was "For a rapper, he
lived to a ripe old age."
My second reaction was "He certainly beat the average life expectancy for
his profession."
So, good on ya!
P.S. In fact, I'd like to see a table of life expectancy by occupation.
Would be interesting to see.
--
The single most important statistic in the US today - the one that explains all the
others - is this: 63 million people thought it was a good idea to vote for this clown
(and will probably do so again). Everything else is secondary to that. Everything else
could be fixed if we can revert this one statistic. Nothing can be fixed until we do.
David Samuel Barr
Sep 30, 2022, 1:55:30 PM9/30/22
to
To put this in perspective, while it is true
that the deaths of rappers tend to be reported,
largely because they may be at a young age and/or
not from natural causes (including things like
cancer and car accidents, not always drugs or
shootings), they are not truly representative
(and, frankly, most of those I see reported are
of ones I've never even heard of and whose fame
comes mostly from their obits). There are
hundreds of rappers of note (and many more not
of note) who are doing just fine even at a
(relatively) advanced age; in my post I
mentioned Mr Biggs and Ice-T, both in their
mid-60s, and Queen Latifah, 52. Except for
Tupac, Apache, Shock G and now Coolio all the
rappers who were on our label in the 1980s and
1990s (including De La Soul, Naughty By Nature,
House of Pain, etc) are alive and reasonably
well, most of them in their 50s or 60s; the
same goes for the majority of the other famed
rappers from the 1970s on, whether still active
in music or moved on to other ventures (e.g.
Mr Biggs is in the wine business, and Ice-T
on L&O:SVU when not in CarShield or Honey Nut
Cheerios commercials, and of course Snoop
Dogg [50] is more often seen in commercials
with Martha Stewart or for Corona Beer and
on Celebrity Wheel of Fortune than he is on
stage rocking the mic these days).
that the deaths of rappers tend to be reported,
largely because they may be at a young age and/or
not from natural causes (including things like
cancer and car accidents, not always drugs or
shootings), they are not truly representative
(and, frankly, most of those I see reported are
of ones I've never even heard of and whose fame
comes mostly from their obits). There are
hundreds of rappers of note (and many more not
of note) who are doing just fine even at a
(relatively) advanced age; in my post I
mentioned Mr Biggs and Ice-T, both in their
mid-60s, and Queen Latifah, 52. Except for
Tupac, Apache, Shock G and now Coolio all the
rappers who were on our label in the 1980s and
1990s (including De La Soul, Naughty By Nature,
House of Pain, etc) are alive and reasonably
well, most of them in their 50s or 60s; the
same goes for the majority of the other famed
rappers from the 1970s on, whether still active
in music or moved on to other ventures (e.g.
Mr Biggs is in the wine business, and Ice-T
on L&O:SVU when not in CarShield or Honey Nut
Cheerios commercials, and of course Snoop
Dogg [50] is more often seen in commercials
with Martha Stewart or for Corona Beer and
on Celebrity Wheel of Fortune than he is on
stage rocking the mic these days).
Louis Epstein
Oct 2, 2022, 2:41:11 PM10/2/22
to
Kenny McCormack <gaz...@shell.xmission.com> wrote:
> In article <th4qc5$bld$1...@reader2.panix.com>,
> J.D. Baldwin <ne...@baldwin.users.panix.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>>Well, at least he lived to see 24.
>
> Yeah, my thoughts exactly.
>
> My first reaction on seeing this post's Subject line was "For a rapper, he
> lived to a ripe old age."
>
> My second reaction was "He certainly beat the average life expectancy for
> his profession."
>
> So, good on ya!
So,if jihadis are promised 72 virgins in the hereafter,
> In article <th4qc5$bld$1...@reader2.panix.com>,
> J.D. Baldwin <ne...@baldwin.users.panix.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>>Well, at least he lived to see 24.
>
> Yeah, my thoughts exactly.
>
> My first reaction on seeing this post's Subject line was "For a rapper, he
> lived to a ripe old age."
>
> My second reaction was "He certainly beat the average life expectancy for
> his profession."
>
> So, good on ya!
does Gangsta's Paradise promise 72 streetwalkers?
-=-=-
The World Trade Center towers MUST rise again,
at least as tall as before...or terror has triumphed.
Lenona
Oct 2, 2022, 3:29:42 PM10/2/22
to
On Sunday, October 2, 2022 at 2:41:11 PM UTC-4, Louis Epstein wrote:
> So,if jihadis are promised 72 virgins in the hereafter,
Or, more likely, a handful of white raisins, as you may know.
> So,if jihadis are promised 72 virgins in the hereafter,
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