Coolio died from a fentanyl overdose it’s emerged, six months after the rapper was found dead at a friend’s home in Los Angeles.
He was just 59. Artis Leon Ivey Jr, better known by his stage name Coolio was best known for his 1995 single Gangsta’s Paradise, from an album of the same name.
The song was a massive hit featured in the film Dangerous Minds, won a Grammy Award for best rap solo performance the following year.
Coolio’s manager, Jarez Posey, said his family had been informed by the Los Angeles county coroner’s office that the singer had died from a fentanyl overdose.
Posey says the later performer’s children plan to honour their father in documentary and film projects.
Born in Pennsylvania in 1963, Coolio began performing as part of the West Coast hip-hop scene after moving to Compton, California.
His debut album, 1994’s It Takes a Thief was a Top Ten hit with the single Fantastic Voyage.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that has been blamed for about 70,000 overdose deaths a year in the US.
The iconic late great Prince died after an accidental overdose of the drug in 2016, and it was found in Tom Petty’s system following the death of the rock star in 2017.
