Gangsta's Paradise's Coolio died of fentanyl overdose: Coroner
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Coolio's manager reveals the cause of the rapper's death a year after the incident.
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Coolio performs during the "I Love The 90's" tour on Aug. 7, 2022, at RiverEdge Park in Aurora, Ill. (AP)
The death of US Grammy-award-winning rapper Coolio in September 2022 was caused by the effects of fentanyl and other substances, according to his management.
The Los Angeles County coroner, according to Jarez Posey, informed the musician's family of the findings. He was found unresponsive on the bathroom floor of a friend's LA house six months ago.
Coolio, 59, whose real name was Artis Leon Ivey Jr, won a Grammy for the 1995 track Gangsta's Paradise. The single, which was later used as the soundtrack for the film Dangerous Minds, went on to become one of the most successful rap songs of all time, helping to popularize the genre.
It continues to be widely listened to and has passed a billion views on YouTube.
The rapper was suffering from heart illness and asthma at the time of his death, according to CBS News.
Even though Coolio had recently used phencyclidine or PCP, his death was a result of the effects of a cocktail of fentanyl, heroin, and methamphetamines, CBS said. That said, the coroner's office deemed his death accidental.
Famous for his 1995 single, he received a Grammy for best solo rap performance as part of the soundtrack for Dangerous Minds starring Michelle Pfeiffer, alongside five Grammy nominations for his career that took off in 1994 with his debut album, It Takes a Thief. Its opening song, Fantastic Voyage, reached No 3 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Earlier this year, Gangsta's Paradise hit one billion views on YouTube, with the artist stating in a video reported by Billboard, “I want to thank everybody for all the years of love and being there for me, I hope I got you through some good times and got you through some bad times.”
Coolio moved to Compton, California, from Pennsylvania where he went to community college and worked as a volunteer firefighter and in airport security before devoting all of his time to hip-hop.
The West Coast artist would then take on acting, and winning awards as a musician whose work appeared in dozens of films and popular television shows. In recent years, he appeared on the reality show Big Brother and developed a cooking series called 'Cookin' with Coolio' that boomed online. He later made headlines in 2013 when he announced an auction of his music rights, including to Gangsta’s Paradise, to fund his career in cuisine.
