The man who gave the world “Gangsta’s Paradise” has passed away. Coolio reportedly dead at age 59. Read on for details.

Welcome back to the ROX-TV website. On this gray morning in September, I have awoken to the news that 1990’s Hip Hop heavyweight Coolio has passed away. Initial reports (which tend to be wrong from time to time) indicate that Coolio died from cardiac arrest. Coolio, whose real name was Artis Leon Ivey Jr was born on August 1st, 1963 in the State of Pennsylvania. At some point the family relocated to California and would set into motion the journey that would lead Artis to become Coolio and shake the world with a few of his songs.

Although most people don’t know, the story goes that Coolio attended Compton Community College…was a volunteer fire fighter, and even worked a stint at Los Angeles International Airport before finding the path forward with music. According to reporting, Coolio dropped his first single in 1987 with the mostly unknown “Watcha Gonna Do”. He worked for a time with Nu-skool in 1988 and worked on a track called “What makes you dance (force groove)”. After little movement, Coolio started to infiltrate the rap community in CALI. By 1991 he had started to make some progress, and surprisingly had fell in with future famous “West Coast” rappers WC and the Maad Circle, who would make serious noise later, working with Ice Cube on the Westside Connection.

Coolio stayed at it and eventually caught the eye from Tommy Boy Records (Founded by Tom Silverman in 1981). Tommy Boy was involved with some major players in the early days of hip hop/rap. They had some serious talent with names like Africa Bambaataa, Queen Latifah, and Digital Underground (which many youngsters often forget featured a young Tupac Shakur for a time). By 1994, Coolio struck pay dirt with his release called “It takes a thief” which hit the ground on July 19th. The first single, as all hip hop nineties headz know, was the blockbuster “Fantastic Voyage”. The first single off the album hit at just the right time in America, showing a less visited side of rap that focused more on having a good time than the traditional gangster themes of the day.

For those of us that were alive to see it (I was 14 years old at the time) on MTV, it fell into a serious heavy rotation, being viewed by millions of kids around the country. Things would never be the same for Coolio after that release, which hit Platinum on October 7th of 1994, selling more than a million copies. After coming off a pretty good run with “It takes a thief” Coolio would complete what many would consider his best work “Gangsta’s Paradise” on November 7th, 1995. It produced Coolio’s best-selling work to date with sales topping two million. The album also had three singles, but the real victory came when the “Gangsta’s Paradise” track was used in the movie “Dangerous Minds” (also in 1995). The movie starred Michelle Pfeiffer and was loosely based on the real life story of LouAnn Johnson. A former Marine and Navy Journalist, she published “My posse don’t do homework”. It was autobiographical in nature, I guess.

I remember the movie; at the time it was pretty hyped and successful. No doubt to the growing suburban ear for rap and hip hop that was just taking hold across American Society. The actual film was “standard” I guess for Hollywood in the mid-nineties. I think it showed a dramatic view of race relation stereotypes of the time, but it was the “it” movie for a time. The soundtrack also did very well thanks to Coolio’s involvement. I think after 1995, Coolio would be forever associated with the movie and that song, whether he liked it or not. The rest of the 1990’s would come and go, like time always does. I don’t remember Coolio having chart shakers after that but it didn’t matter. To date “Gangsta’s Paradise” has over a BILLION VIEWS on YouTube. He had carved his name in the wall and so we remember today.

Signing Off,

Mike Shepard

ROX-TV Head Writer