She posted a clip from the music video on Instagram with the caption, “Heartbroken to hear of the gifted artist Coolio’s passing,” in which she sits across from the hip-hop star and glares at him while he raps.
A life cut far too short she went on to say. Nothing but graciousness comes to mind when I think of him. Pfeiffer’s character in Dangerous Minds is a former Marine turned teacher at a challenging inner-city high school where she runs a pilot program for gifted but unmotivated students.
The album features a haunting track by Coolio, which samples the chorus of Stevie Wonder’s Pastime Paradise and went on to become one of the most successful rap songs of all time.
Ice Cube, another famous rapper and actor, said: “Indeed, this is discouraging information. While Vanilla Ice tweeted, “I’m freaking out I just heard my good friend Coolio passed away,” I saw firsthand how hard this man worked to get to the top of his industry.
One of the nicest dudes I’ve known, MC Hammer said of Coolio. “Just decent human beings. Until we meet again, Coolio,” he wrote while uploading a monochrome photo of the rapper and a color photo of themselves with Tupac and Snoop Dogg.
In a tweet, Oscar-winning musician and director Questlove simply wrote, “Peaceful Journey Brother.” Flavor Flav, a fellow rapper, once boasted that he and Coolio were supposed to “perform together this Tuesday,” calling Coolio “the West Coast Flavor Flav… He loved telling everyone that.” Singer Debbie Harry wrote “Rest in power,” while rapper LL Cool J added “Love & Respect” to his tribute. Al Yankovic, a musician, shared a photo of the two of them online.
RIP Coolio pic.twitter.com/Z53f3n6HDU
— Al Yankovic (@alyankovic) September 29, 2022
Check out the tweet in its original Twitter format here. While Coolio’s musical career began in the ’80s, it was the release of Gangsta’s Paradise in 1996 that truly established his place in the hip-hop canon.
Although he was born in Pennsylvania, he spent much of his formative years in the Los Angeles suburb of Compton, where his rap career would go on to flourish and become widely recognized.
According to The Black Names Project, he got his rap name after a friend asked him, “Who do you think you are, Coolio Iglesias?” Before he committed himself fully to hip-hop, he served as a volunteer firefighter in the San Jose area.
He explained his motivation as a “way to clean up” in a 1994 interview with the Los Angeles Times. He finally found the discipline he was looking for in firefighter training. “Regular daily runs were a part of our routine. I didn’t engage in my usual vices, such as drinking and smoking.”
Coolio turned down the opportunity to be labeled a gangster rapper in favor of being an all-around performer. A skilled producer and actor, he has starred in dozens of movies and TV shows including the 2009 UK edition of Celebrity Big Brother.
And he has a book and web series dedicated to his passion for cooking, entitled Cooking with Coolio. Over the course of his 40-year career, he released eight studio albums, earned three MTV Video Music Awards and was nominated for an American Music Award.
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Fantastic Voyage, Rollin’ With My Homies, 1, 2, 3, 4 (Sumpin’ New) and Too Hot were also huge hits for him. Coolio was on tour with other 90s stars like Vanilla Ice and Young MC when he passed away and they had just performed in Texas days before. Coolio’s ex-wife, Josefa Salinas, with whom he wed in 1996 and later divorced, is the mother of his four children. It took some time before we could get a full family tree for him.
