The rapper Coolio has died at 59
Coolio, the rapper who was among hip-hop’s greatest names of the 1990s with hits including “Gangsta’s Heaven” and “Incredible Journey,” passed on Wednesday at age 59, his manager said
Coolio died at the Los Angeles home of a friend, long-lasting manager Jarez Posey told The Associated Press. The cause was not immediately clear.
Coolio won a Grammy for best solo rap performance for “Gangsta’s Paradise,” the 1995 hit from the soundtrack of the Michelle Pfeiffer film “Dangerous Personalities” that sampled Stevie Miracle’s 1976 tune “Pastime Paradise” and was played constantly on MTV.
The Grammy, and the level of his popularity, came in 1996, amid a furious fight between the hip-hop networks of the two coasts, which would take the existences of Tupac Shakur and The Famous B.I.G. soon after.
Coolio managed to stay generally above the contention.
“I might want to claim this Grammy on behalf of the entire hip-hop nation, West Coast, East Coast, and around the world united we stand, partitioned we fall,” he said from the stage as he accepted the award.
Born in Monessen, Pennsylvania south of Pittsburgh, Coolio moved to Compton, California.He spent some time as a teen in Northern California, where his mom sent him because she felt the city was excessively dangerous
