Coolio, who has died suddenly aged 59, was an accessible star of the US west coast hip-hop scene whose 1995 single Gangsta’s Paradise became one of the most successful rap songs of all time, topping charts around the world.
Although he had emerged in the late 1980s from the same Los Angeles neighbourhood as the combative hip-hop artists Dr Dre, Eazy-E, Ice Cube and the rest of the NWA crew, Coolio’s subject matter and demeanour were lightweight in comparison with some of his peers. Gangsta’s Paradise, which appeared in the film Dangerous Minds (1995), starring Michelle Pfeiffer, took as its topic the short and brutal existence of the career criminal, but its poppy tones reflected Coolio’s more melodic and playful positioning at the lighter end of rap.
