NOS News•
American rapper Coolio, who died last year, succumbed to an overdose of the strong painkiller fentanyl. This has been announced by his manager. Artis Ivey, as the rapper was really called, died in Los Angeles last September at the age of 59.
Coolio, best known for the song Gangsta’s Paradise from 1995, also had traces of heroin and methamphetamine in his blood. He also suffered from cardiomyopathy, a disease of the heart muscle. The fact that he smoked while suffering from a severe form of asthma also played a role in his death, according to researchers.
Coolio is credited as one of the rappers who made hip-hop, which became popular in the 1980s, mainstream in the 1990s. By Gangsta’s Paradisean adaptation of Stevie Wonders Pastime Paradise from 1976, sold millions of records worldwide. In 1996 Coolio received a Grammy for the song, in the category ‘best rap’. Gangsta’s Paradise was the soundtrack of the successful movie Dangerous Minds from 1995.
An album of the material Coolio was working on shortly before his death is planned to be released later this year.
The official Gangsta’s Paradise clip has been viewed over 1 billion times on YouTube:
