“Gangsta’s Paradise” rapper Coolio suffered an unintentional death from the results of fentanyl, heroin and methamphetamine final 12 months, the Los Angeles County coroner’s workplace reported Thursday.
The county company additionally cited cardiomyopathy, a illness that makes it tougher for the guts to pump blood to the physique, as a “important situation.” Investigators additionally decided Coolio’s extreme bronchial asthma and cigarette smoking performed a job in his death.
Coolio’s former longtime supervisor Jarez Posey additionally confirmed the reason for death Thursday.
Coolio — born Artis Leon Ivey Jr., on Aug. 1, 1963 — died on the Los Angeles house of a pal on Sept. 28, 2022. He was 59.
Coolio gained a Grammy for greatest solo rap efficiency 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 born in Monessen, Pennsylvania, and later moved to Compton, California.
He began rapping at 15 and knew by 18 it was what he wished to do along with his life, he stated in interviews. Coolio attended neighborhood faculty earlier than devoting himself full-time to the hip-hop scene.
His profession album gross sales totalled 4.8 million, with 978 million on-demand streams of his songs, in accordance with Luminate. He was nominated for six Grammys.
With his distinctive persona, he grew to become a cultural staple, appearing often, offering a voice for an animated present and offering the theme music for a Nickelodeon sitcom.
Coolio’s property plans to launch a studio album later this 12 months that he had been engaged on within the days earlier than he died.