90’s Rap Icon Dies

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Myah Held, Reporter

On September 28, 2022, the famous 90s rapper Coolio died of cardiac arrest. His manager Jarez Posey reportedly confirmed his death first to TMZ. Coolio was 59 when he died in his friend’s Los Angeles home. Firefighters responded to a call around 4 pm and Coolio was determined dead right before 5 pm.

Coolio was most known for his song gangster paradise which has over a billion streams on Spotify. Coolio won a Grammy for “Gangsta’s Paradise,” which was released in 1995 and spent three weeks at the top of Billboard’s Hot 100 list. After the release of gangster paradise, he blew up in fame and won a Grammy again the next year for best solo rap performance. Coolio was an inspiration to people all over. He was a respected individual that dug himself out of a drug problem that he said would have killed him. He told the publication “I wasn’t looking for a career, I was looking for a way to clean up – a way to escape the drug thing”. Coolio was in the music industry for around 3 decades and had 3 of his songs featured in the top 10 on the Hot 100, and 2 on the Billboard 200.

Actor Lou Diamond Phillips said “I am absolutely stunned. 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 Capetown and we loved going head to head in the kitchen. He was one of a kind. Epic,Legendary and I’ll miss him,”. Other friends and family of Coolio have tweeted memories or sent their condolences to Coolio. His death impacted a specific community but from what we can see everyone who knew him had nothing but positive and loving things to say about him.