A posthumous Coolio album is on the way.
‘Long Live Coolio’ is set to be released later this year, and the lead single ‘TAG ‘You It’’, featuring Too $hort and DJ Wino, is out now.
A music video for the track sees the ‘Gangsta’s Paradise’ hitmaker and Too $hort – real name Todd Anthony Shaw – in a boxing ring with twerking female boxers.
The upcoming collection features songs that the late rap legend was working on before his passing at the age of 59 in September 2022.
The rapper’s longtime manager, Jarez Posey, confirmed his client was found collapsed in the bathroom at a friend’s home in Los Angeles on September 28 after suffering a cardiac arrest.
Paramedics were called to the scene at around 4pm and he was pronounced dead a little while after they arrived.
No drugs or drug paraphernalia were found by police.
Coolio was cremated after his death and his ashes were reportedly placed into pendants which were then given to his children.
A source told TMZ: “A few other close family members will get them as well.” TMZ also reported each of the rapper’s sons and daughters will “get to pick customised inscriptions for their jewellery” and “the rest of Coolio’s ashes will go into an urn once all the necklaces are distributed”.
Coolio shared four of his children, Artisha, Brandi, Jackie, and Artis, with ex-wife Josefa Salinas, whom he divorced in 2000. He had a further six children named Grtis, Milan, Darius, Zhaneand, and twins Kate and Shayne from different relationships.
The hip-hop legend – whose real name was Artis Leon Ivey Jr – released his debut single ‘Whatcha Gonna Do?’ in 1987.
Coolio got his first break in the rap group WC and the Maad Circle alongside WC and his brother, Crazy Toones, the latter of whom died of a heart attack in 2017 aged 45.
His global breakthrough came in the mid-90s when the star landed a Grammy for 1995 classic ‘Gangsta’s Paradise’.
Coolio won Best Solo Rap Performance with the pioneering anthem, which interpolates Stevie Wonder’s 1976 song ‘Pastime Paradise’.
It stayed at the top of the US Billboard charts for three weeks.
He also had a top five hit with ‘Fantastic Voyage’.
The rapper released eight solo albums, his final being 2009’s ‘From the Bottom 2 the Top’.
Coolio also wrote the intro to Nickelodeon’s iconic TV show ‘Kenan and Kel’, ‘Aw, Here It Goes!’, in the 90s.
He also became a chef, with his own web series ‘Cookin’ with Coolio’.
Coolio also starred in many films and television shows.
And he came third in the sixth series of ‘Celebrity Big Brother’ in 2009.