You can read here about Coolio net worth. American rapper Artis Leon Ivey Jr. is better known by his stage name Coolio was born on August 1, 1963 and died on September 28, 2022. Although Coolio first gained notoriety as a member of the gangsta rap group WC and the Maad Circle. It wasn’t until the release of his solo albums It Takes a Thief (1994), Gangsta’s Paradise (1995) and My Soul to Save that he found widespread success.
Among his many hits are 1995’s “Gangsta’s Paradise” for which he won a Grammy and 1994’s “Fantastic Voyage” and 1997’s “C U When U Get There” (1997). Coolio began releasing albums independently in 1996 and his song “Aw, Here It Goes!” served as the theme song for the Nickelodeon show Kenan & Kel’s first season. He published a cookbook and launched the web series Cookin’ with Coolio.
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Coolio Net Worth
Despite his constant touring, Coolio was worth $1.5 million when he passed away. During the summer, he performed at various venues across Europe and the United States including the ERA Music Festival in Florida. On September 4 of his final month, Coolio performed at Virginia Beach’s 24th Street Stage and then he went on to South Dakota’s Denny Sanford Premier Center and Tennessee’s The Caverns. After a show on September 30 at Camelback Ranch in Arizona with Vanilla Ice, Rob Base, Tone Loc and Young MC, Coolio was scheduled to perform at the PPL Center in Pennsylvania on November 18.
Early Life of Coolio
On August 1, 1963, Coolio was born in Los Angeles, California, but spent most of his childhood in Compton. When Ivey was eight years old, his mother, a factory worker divorced his carpenter father and moved the family to Compton. Young Coolio who suffered from severe asthma spent a lot of time at the library. He began rapping as a teenager and was initially called Coolio Iglesias, after the Spanish singer Julio Iglesias.
He was arrested for larceny and then for bringing a weapon to school. He became addicted to crack cocaine during Compton’s decline in the ’80s, but he was able to kick the habit while visiting his father in San Jose. Before he became a rapper, he worked as a volunteer firefighter and in airport security after graduating from Compton Community College.
How did Coolio’s Career Start?
In 1987, Coolio released his debut single, “Whatcha Gonna Do?” with Nu-Skool. He also released “What Makes You Dance (Force Groove)” in 1988. Coolio made connections in the L.A. rap scene and in 1991 ended up joining the group WC and the Maad Circle, led by rapper WC. On their first album, Ain’t a Damn Thing Changed, he is listed as a co-writer for the track “Dress Code”.
It Takes a Thief, Coolio’s first solo album was released in 1994 after he signed with Tommy Boy Records. The lead single “Fantastic Voyage” received heavy rotation on MTV and peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. A year from now, “Fantastic Voyage” will be remembered as a top rap hit. Hit singles like “County Line” and “I Remember” also appeared on the album.
Platinum status was awarded after It Takes a Thief reached position eight on the Billboard 200. The album was lauded for its ability to bring fun to the typically violent and profane themes of gangsta rap. To promote the movie Dangerous Minds, Coolio and R&B singer L.V. dropped the single “Gangsta’s Paradise” in 1995. It spent three weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 making it one of the most successful rap songs.
It topped the charts in the US across all genres in 1995 and it also topped the charts in the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Austria, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Australia and New Zealand. “Gangsta’s Paradise” was the second-best-selling single of 1995 in the U.K. The song also created a controversy when Coolio claimed that comedy musician “Weird Al” Yankovic had not asked for permission to make his parody of “Gangsta’s Paradise”, titled “Amish Paradise”.
At the 1996 Grammy Awards, the song won Coolio a Grammy Award for Best Rap Solo Performance. Coolio appeared as a contestant on Comeback – Die Grobe Chance in 2004 translated in English as Comeback: The Big Chance, a German talent show featuring artists looking for a comeback. In the television series Futurama, Coolio made two appearances on the TV series and one appearance in Futurama: Bender’s Big Score, a straight-to-video movie for the show.
He played Kwanzaa-bot, a rapping robot that spreads awareness about Kwanzaa. In 2009, Coolio appeared as a housemate on the sixth season of the UK version of Celebrity Big Brother. He later went on to appear on the UK’s Ultimate Big Brother in 2010, where he decided it was best to leave the house after numerous confrontations with Nadia Almada and others there.
In January 2012, he was one of eight celebrities participating in the Food Network reality television series Rachael vs. Guy: Celebrity Cook-Off where he represented the Music Saves Lives Organization. He also guests starred as himself on Sabrina the Teenage Witch.
legal issues on Coolio
Having been found guilty of aiding and abetting a robbery and causing bodily injury in 1998, a court in Boblingen, a suburb of Stuttgart, sentenced Coolio to six months of probation and a fine of $17,000. Several members of Coolio’s crew were apprehended in 2016 at Los Angeles International Airport for carrying a loaded firearm in a suitcase.
As the party tried to pass through a TSA checkpoint, an agent noticed the bag and flagged it. The bag was initially claimed by one of his bodyguards, but eyewitnesses later testified that it actually belonged to Coolio. Three years of probation and 45 days of community service was Coolio’s punishment.
Singapore’s Changi International Airport turned Coolio away in 2017 when he tried to enter the country. The Immigration and Checkpoints Authority of Singapore did not want to discuss the reason for the rejection, citing privacy concerns. Coolio was on his way from Beijing to Singapore to play a Formula One concert.
How Coolio died?
On September 28, at the age of 59, Coolio passed away suddenly. Artis Leon Ivey Jr., the musician’s real name, was discovered unresponsive on the bathroom floor of a friend’s Los Angeles home at around 4 p.m. In a frantic 45 minutes, paramedics tried desperately to revive the rapper.
Authorities are conducting an autopsy to determine the official cause of death but they do not suspect foul play. Longtime manager Jarez said paramedics thought the father-of-ten had a cardiac arrest. For most of his life, Coolio had to deal with the effects of asthma. While performing in Brooklyn’s Hilly Country Barbecue Market in 2016, he had trouble keeping up. A concerned fan gave the musician an inhaler after noticing that he was having difficulty breathing.
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Coolio said he almost died from asthma attacks in a 2002 interview. He said, “I had to accept that I had a chronic disease that would require treatment for as long as it lasted”. Coolio worked as a spokesman for the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. It might explain why Coolio’s career stagnated and his fortune plummeted.
Final Lines
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