Since news of his death broke late on Wednesday, condolences have poured in from all corners. With that hair, his bouncing lowriders and his generally chill vibe, he proved that a rapper could be gangster and gregarious. And he doesn’t get enough love for making Fantastic Voyage, 1, 2, 3, 4 (Sumpin’ New) and other G-funk classics that still turn a party out today. You know, people who were definitely more talented than I am,” Coolio said in a 2016 appearance on the YouTube show Hot Ones.Ĭoolio, who churned out eight studio albums and collaborated with everyone from Janet Jackson to Kenny Rogers, doesn’t get enough credit for setting the tone for people like Snoop Dogg and Busta Rhymes. Photograph: Gie Knaeps/Getty Imagesīut in time – after cashing many royalty checks, says Yankovic, who remained reverential of Coolio throughout – the rapper came to see Amish Paradise as the ultimate tribute. It didn’t help that Dangerous Minds, with its heavy-handed white savior themes, would go on to be regarded as something of a joke, too.Ĭoolio performs in Belgium 2000. That this send-up became the sore spot of his most public rap beef is, in some ways, so Coolio – who initially felt he was being clowned. Even the “Weird Al” Yankovic parody, Amish Paradise (which featured the bespectacled satirist on the cover with his hair styled like Coolio’s) made it to No 53 on the Hot 100 list in 1996. Gangsta’s Paradise didn’t just crush the competition and win Coolio a Grammy. Idolator went one better, calling it “rap rhapsody”. “It chose me as the vessel,” Coolio would say of his signature song – which Entertainment Weekly dubbed “the bleakest tune to ever top the pop charts”. The song, which interpolates Stevie Wonder’s Pastime Paradise and a swelling church choir, arguably showcases the most doleful version of Coolio. The music video, directed by The Equalizer’s Antoine Fuqua and also featuring Pfeiffer, dominated music television and has since surpassed 1bn YouTube views. It topped the charts in 14 countries and locked out the top two spots on Billboard’s US Hot 100 list on the way to going triple platinum. It was arguably the beginning of rap music truly going pop. That single, which headlined a sophomore album of the same name and was also featured on the soundtrack for the 1995 Michelle Pfeiffer film Dangerous Minds, owned the airwaves. Gangsta’s Paradise was too hypnotic too escape And yet for all of Coolio’s obvious skill, which really shows up in his early work (he recorded his first single in 1987), he’s easily summed up in one song: Gangsta’s Paradise. The five-page letter was circulated widely and offered heavy life lessons for the rapper's fans and admirers.As a pure emcee, he had a way with words and delivered them with the urgency of a man cruising around town in a lowrider – another favorite hobby of his. In March of 2017, Big Flock penned a regretful open letter to his public, apologizing for his crimes and stating that he finally realized - a little too late - that the streets didn't love anyone. He was incarcerated for stretches of his early music career, and in late 2016 he was sentenced to three years for gun and drug charges. Big Flock's songs and videos told tales of glorified gang violence and drug-dealing lifestyles, and the rapper lived what he wrote about. Flock released the Sonny mixtape as well as an EP entitled Live Hungry, Die Fat in 2014, and the next two years brought the mixtapes Glockism, Kill Me Now, and The Great Depression, the latter of which featured guest spots from 21 Savage and Hoodrich Pablo Juan. His solo mixtapes came as frequently as his contributions to Thraxxx, with 2013's Trilluminati kicking off a nonstop stretch of solo projects that grew fiercer and darker as they went. area rap scene, releasing tracks both as part of the group and solo. Along with Lizzle, Freakshow, and Boogie Snow, the other rappers who made up Thraxxx, Big Flock was active in the Washington, D.C. Born and raised in Maryland, rapper Charles Ulysses Bowman-Bey began performing under the name Big Flock around 2012 when he was part of the group Thraxxx.
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