Coolio dies

Why it matters

Artis Ivey Jr., who recorded as Coolio, died on September 28, 2022, of an accidental fentanyl overdose at a friend's house in Los Angeles. He was 59. He had been performing into 2022; he had not been in obvious health decline. Coolio is the rapper of "Gangsta's Paradise," the 1995 single built on a Stevie Wonder sample ("Pastime Paradise") and recorded for the Dangerous Minds film soundtrack. The song was, by some measures, the biggest-selling single in the United States in 1995, and was the biggest international hip-hop single of the mid-90s by a wide margin. Coolio had a real career before and after "Gangsta's Paradise" (the 1994 LP It Takes a Thief, his Kids' Choice Awards spot with Weird Al's parody "Amish Paradise," his later cooking-show career), but the one song is the one most people remember. The song became, internationally, one of the few rap records of its era that crossed every market in the world. Coolio was the voice. You have heard the song. You can still sing the chorus from memory. That is what he made.