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Coolio

Source: Daniel Boczarski / Getty

Coolio, the ’90s rap star who scored a ubiquitous hit with the Grammy Award-winning “Gangsta’s Paradise,” died of cardiac arrest at a friend’s home in Los Angeles on Wednesday (September 28). He was 59.

According to TMZ, Coolio’s longtime manager Jarez discovered him unresponsive on the bathroom floor. Paramedics soon arrived on the scene but the rapper was pronounced dead.

Born Artis Leon Ivey Jr., the Pennsylvania-born, Compton-raised rapper first got started in Compton’s underground before crafting his first breakout single, “County Line” about ripping off the government. On the same album, his flip of Lakeside‘s “Fantastic Voyage” for his own “Fantastic Voyage” made him a commercial success. The single peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart before he became internationally known one year later with “Gangsta’s Paradise.”

The lead single from the soundtrack to the 1995 film Dangerous Minds, “Gangsta’s Paradise” flipped Stevie Wonder‘s “Pastime Paradise” and went on to become one of the biggest selling Hip Hop singles of all time. It would reach No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and earn him a Grammy for Best Rap Solo Performance in 1996.

His third album, My Soul, didn’t chart as high as his precedesors but the lead single, “C U When U Get There,” became his fourth Top 15 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart following “1, 2, 3, 4 (Sumpin’ New).” He also contributed to the Monstars theme song from the 1996 film Space Jam and the theme song to Nickelodeon’s Keenan & Kel.

RELATED: Coolio Performs “Gangsta’s Paradise” With British College Kids [VIDEO]

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