Rapper Coolio died aged 59

News broke today that US rapper Coolio died yesterday at the age of 59. The rapper became very famous in the 1990s with the 1995 song Gangsta's Paradise, which was also used for the film Dangerous Minds, in which Coolio himself is also featured along with actress Michelle Pfeiffer.

Coolio ft.L.V. and Stevie Wonder Gangsta's Paradise Live on the BillBoards Awards in 1995

This is one of the most treasured moments when the song Gangsta's Paradise received a Grammy Award in 1995. You can see in the video below the live event and none other than Stevie Wonder also joining in the performance during the song, as Gangsta's Paradise is in fact one of the best sampled songs and used Stevie Wonder's song Pastime Paradise for their own song.

Biography Coolio and
Highlights 1990 - 1995

Artis Leon Ivey Jr. known as stage name Coolio was born on 1 August 1963 in Monessen ( Pennsylvania ) He grew up in California. After high school, he started his career in Los Angeles in the 1990s. He released his first single Watch Gonna Do, but had to temporarily quit music due to drug addiction. Coolio then stopped making music and started working on his drug addiction and working as a fireman for a while. In 1994, Coolio returned with an album titled It Takes a Thief and the single Fantastic Voyage became a hit. In the Netherlands, this song spent four weeks in the top 40 but did not become a top 10 hit. The second single that came out Gangsta's Paradise became his all-time biggest hit and success.

The rap song was sampled with the melody line of the song Pastime Paradise from Stevie Wonder's 1976 album Songs in the Key of Life. The song Gangsta's Paradise mainly owes its success to the arrival of the film Dangerous Minds in the same year in which the song is heard and also features Coolio. The song became a worldwide number 1 hit both in America and also in the Netherlands. The song dominated the chart for as many as 19 weeks of which it spent five weeks at No 1.

Dangerous Minds was made by the two film producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer. The director of the film was John N. Smith. The film stars actress Michelle Pfeiffer playing the role of a teacher at a high school in the slums of California. In her role as a teacher, Michelle has to deal with a class of students who don't really like going to school and she finds it hard to connect with the students. Over time, you see the trust grow between her and the students and she builds a bond with her students. This is to the dismay of the school's management who find the pupils just a nuisance. An impressive storyline which portrays a situation based on a true story.

Highlights 1997

In 1995, his album Gangsta's Paradise was released and the song Too Hot from 1996 was released as a single and was also well received.

In 1997, we still see and hear Coolio alongside other rappers, including LL Cool J, Busta Rhymes, B-Real and Method Man in Looney Tunes and Michael Jordan's soundtrack Space Jam. The song they release is called Hit 'Em High ( The Monsters Anthem ) This song also became a hit and especially in the UK. In the Netherlands, the song reached fourth place in the Top 40.

In 1997, he also made a song C U When U Get There along with In 1998, his third album My Soul was released, but it was not well received and sales were poor. The song was created based on one of the pieces of music, Canon in D by German organist, composer and teacher Johann Pachelbel. The song was also used as the soundtrack for the comedy film Nothing To Lose. Sales of the album were poor and at that time Coolio got into trouble with the police for theft . After that, Coolio returned with his own record label and released his fourth album El Cool Magnificio in 2002.

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