Coolio, the rapper who was among hip-hop’s biggest names of the 1990s with hits including “Gangsta’s Paradise” and “Fantastic Voyage,” died last year because of fentanyl, his manager said.
Multiple bags containing drugs, as well as paraphernalia, were discovered near the body of the late rapper Coolio.
Coolio’s former longtime manager Jarez Posey told The Associated Press Thursday that Coolio’s cause of death was fentanyl and that he also had traces of heroin and methamphetamine in his system.
Posey said the rapper’s children planned to honor their father in future 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.
He released his debut album, It Takes a Thief, in 1994, scoring a Top Ten hit with the single Fantastic Voyage.
His career album sales totaled 4.8 million, with 978 million on-demand streams of his songs, according to Luminate. He was nominated for six Grammys.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that has been blamed for about 70,000 overdose deaths a year in the US.
The singer 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.
With his distinctive person, he became a cultural staple, acting occasionally, providing a voice for an animated show and providing the theme music for a Nickelodeon sitcom.
Coolio’s estate plans to release a studio album later this year that he had been working on in the days before he died.
