His signature song owned the airwaves and proved that an emcee could be gangster and gregarious
Coolio’s hairstyle was one of a kind: trademark twists sat atop his head like Medusa’s snakes. It was a look that defined 1990s hip-hop as much as Tupac’s nose piercing and Flavor Flav’s clock chain, even if no one ever imitated it (perhaps only Coolio had the dexterity to thread those thin braids through the holes of his baseball cap).
On Wednesday, the rapper – real name Artis Leon Ivey Jr – died at a friend’s house in Los Angeles, his manager said. The 59-year-old was a critical figure in establishing west coast hip-hop’s 1970s-flavored R&B sound – the style that would come to be known as G-funk – in the mainstream.
