As far as 90s hits go, it doesn’t get much bigger and better than Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise”.
An interpolation of Stevie Wonder's 1976 sleeper hit “Pastime Paradise”, the haunting single saw Coolio (real name Artis Leon Ivey Jr) detail how his “character” is wasting away in the streets and certain to meet death at any moment due to his life of crime.
Not many songs on such a raw subject matter made an impression on the charts in the 90s, but so compelling and infectious was “Gangsta’s Paradise”, which was part of the 1995 film “Dangerous Minds”, that it beat the odds and went on to become the best selling song of 1995 in the US.
It would also go on to be awarded a Grammy for Best Rap Solo Performance, two MTV Video Music Awards for Best Rap Video and Best Video from a Film, and a Billboard Music Award.
With his career still active and ahead of a tour with fellow 90s stars such as Vanilla Ice and Young MC, Coolio died on Wednesday evening.
The 59-year-old rapper was found unresponsive on the bathroom floor of a friend’s Los Angeles home, his long-time manager and close friend Jarez Posey told media.
While his cause of death is still yet to be officially revealed, Posey told gossip and entertainment site TMZ, who were the first to report his death, that paramedics believed he may have had a cardiac arrest.
Tributes have since been pouring in with several film, music and sports stars, including Michelle Pfeiffer, Ice Cube, Matt Bonner, MC Hammer and Snoop Dogg, sharing touching tributes to the rapper.
Actor Lou Diamond Phillips took to Twitter to pay tribute to the rapper and recount his experience with Coolio during a shoot in Cape Town.
“I am absolutely stunned,” he said. “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 Cape Town and we loved going head to head in the kitchen.
“He was one of a kind. Epic, legendary and I'll miss him.”
Pfeiffer, who starred in “Dangerous Minds”, said she was “heartbroken” at the news and opined that “Gangsta’s Paradise” was the reason the film was so successful.
“Heartbroken to hear of the passing of the gifted artist @coolio,” she shared on an Instagram post with a clip of her cameo appearance in the song’s music video.
“A life cut entirely too short. As some of you may know I was lucky enough to work with him on ‘Dangerous Minds’ in 1995. He won a Grammy for his brilliant song on the soundtrack - which I think was the reason our film saw so much success.
“I remember him being nothing but gracious. 30 years later I still get chills when I hear the song. Sending love and light to his family. Rest in Power, Artis Leon Ivey Jr.”
Pfeiffer played the role of a young teacher who took it upon herself to unplift underachieving teenagers in an under-resourced school ride with drug pushing and gang warfare.
Off the back of the hit soundtrack, the film has gone on to gross nearly $200 million worldwide.
Coolio himself resonated with many of the themes in the film due to his difficult inner city upbringing. A year prior to the film’s release, he shared that he had gotten himself clean from drugs by initially pursuing a career as a firefighter before he took to music.
“I wasn’t looking for a career, I was looking for a way to clean up,” he told the Los Angeles Times.
“A way to escape the drug thing. It was going to kill me and I knew I had to stop. In firefighting training was the discipline I needed. We ran every day. I wasn't drinking or smoking or doing the stuff I usually did.”
“Gangsta’s Paradise” continues to be widely listened to. Coolio recently celebrated the song becoming one of a handful of 90s rap records to reach a billion streams on Spotify and a billion views on YouTube.
Interestingly, during an interview with Rolling Stone in 2015, he shared how Stevie Wonder initially denied his request to sample “Pastime Paradise” because Wonder didn’t want his song being used in “some gangster song”.
After Coolio's wife stepped in and reached out to Wonder’s brother, Wonder eventually agreed to clear the sample.
“His only stipulation was that I had to take the curse words out,” he said. “I had two places where I had the N-word in it, and two places where it was, like, “F**** in the a**,” or something like that.
“And Stevie said that if I’d take that out, he would sign off on it. Unbeknownst to me, the other condition was that he wanted 95 percent of the publishing.”
The runaway success of “Gangsta’s Paradise” led Coolio to include it as the lead single on his sophomore album that same year.
He’d later find success with two more singles on the album: “1, 2, 3, 4 (Sumpin’ New)” and “Too Hot”. The latter would reach the Billboard Top Ten in 1996.
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While he never quite replicated the success of “Gangsta’s Paradise”, Coolio would go on to release a few more well-received albums over the years.
After making his on-screen debut in 1996 on the comedy “Phat Beach”, he also gradually began focusing more and more on acting. That same year he recorded the iconic theme song for the popular 90s sitcom, “Kenan and Kel”.
Some of his other roles as an actor included a part in 1997’s “Batman and Robin”, his starring role as triplets in the 1999 comedy film “Tyrone” and a feature in the 2009 short film “The Lost Archives of Quincy Taylor”.
It was also in 2009 that he released his last album, “From the Bottom 2 the Top”.
Sheila Finegan, his manager at Trinity Artists International, neatly summed up his legacy in a statement shortly after news of his death emerged.
“We are saddened by the loss of our dear friend and client, Coolio, who passed away this afternoon. He touched the world with the gift of his talent and will be missed profoundly.”