Coolio, the American rap legend, died of an overdose. The rapper, known for his 1995 song "Gangsta's Paradise" and who died in 2022, died of an accidental fentanyl overdose, a medical source said Thursday. The Grammy-winning musician, whose real name was Artis Leon Ivey Jr, died last September at the age of 59 at a friend's home in Los Angeles.
The medical examiner's report, released Thursday by Los Angeles County, claims the rapper died of a fentanyl overdose and adds that the musician suffered from heart disease and asthma. He had also taken phencyclidine, or PCP, a psychedelic drug that can cause serious mental or emotional disturbances shortly before, according to the same source.
Jarez Posey, Coolio's longtime friend and manager, told celebrity news site TMZ at the time that Coolio was found unconscious in a friend's bathroom and pronounced dead at the scene.
Coolio began his rap career in California in the late 1980s, but rose to worldwide fame in 1995 when he released "Gangsta's Paradise" for the soundtrack to the movie Dangerous Minds.
He received the Best Rap Solo Performance award for the track at the Grammy Awards the following year. The song sold millions of copies worldwide, becoming Billboard's number one song in 1995.
The United States has passed a record of more than 100,000 deaths in one year (April 2020 – April 2021). Fentanyl is often the culprit: it is a powerful and dangerous synthetic opioid, sometimes mixed with heroin or cocaine, a cocktail that killed the star of the cult series The Wire, Michael K. Williams , September 6, 2021.
