Coolio, whose legal name was Artis Ivey Jr., grew up in Compton, Calif. He started rapping at 15 and became one of hip-hop’s biggest names in the 1990s, with hits like the Grammy-winning, chart-topping “Gangsta’s Paradise” shooting him to the height of his popularity.
Coolio’s 1994 debut album It Takes a Thief kicked off his meteoric rise. “Fantastic Voyage,” the album’s opening track, reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The coroner’s report also listed “other specific conditions” including asthma, cardiomyopathy and phencyclidine use.
Cardiomyopathy refers to a range of problems with the heart muscle that make it more difficult to pump blood, according to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. It can cause heart failure and heart attacks.
Phencyclidine, originally developed as an anesthetic for delivery through an IV, is better known as PCP. It was later discontinued because patients experienced “postoperative delirium with hallucinations,” but is used today as a recreational drug for its mind-altering effects, according to the Department of Justice.
At the time of his death at the age of 59, the rapper was suffering from heart disease and asthma, and had recently taken phencyclidine, or PCP — a psychedelic drug that can cause severe mental or emotional disorders, the Los Angeles County Coroner said in a report.
Coolio’s friend and long-time manager Jarez Posey told celebrity news website TMZ at the time that Coolio had been found unresponsive in a friend’s bathroom and pronounced dead at the scene.
He was awarded Best Rap Solo Performance for the track at the following year’s Grammy Awards ceremony.
The song sold millions of copies worldwide, topping pop charts in 16 countries and becoming Billboard’s top song for 1995.
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