Coolio

Coolio (born Artis Leon Ivey, Jr. on August 1, 1963 in Compton, California) is an American rapper and actor perhaps best known for the hit song "Gangsta's Paradise." The album Gangsta's Paradise is considered a classic west coast Gangsta rap album, thanks to songs like "Exercise Yo Game" and "Geto Highlites." Coolio has also made numerous television and film appearances. He got the name 'Coolio' after friends called him Coolio Inglesias because he played guitar. In high school, his nickname was 'Boo'.

Coolio started his career as a member of the rap group, WC and the Maad Circle, which included WC, Sir Jinx and DJ Crazy Toones. The group released two albums, Ain't a Damn Thang Changed in 1991 and Curb Servin' in 1995. The group disbanded shortly after the release of Curb Servin'. In 1994, Coolio released his debut album It Takes a Thief which featured the hugely successful singles, Fantastic Voyage and It Takes a Thief. In 1995 Coolio released his second and most successful album Gangsta's Paradise, which went 4X Platinum and featured the mega hit, Gangsta's Paradise and the popular party track, Sumpin New. However, Coolio's next three albums, 1997's "My Soul", 2002's "El Cool Magnifico" and 2006's "Return of the Gangsta", failed to live up to the success of his first two albums.

Coolio's recordings also appeared on the soundtracks to Clueless (1995) and Dangerous Minds (1995).

In 2005 he co-hosted the MOBO awards in the UK. The MOBO (an acronym for Music Of Black Origin) Awards, established in 1996 by Kanya King, are held annually in the UK to recognize artists of any race or nationality performing music of black origin. Coolio is a former Crip member. Coolio is also associated with Snoop Dogg.

He performed the theme song for the 1996 TV show Kenan and Kel, entitled "Awww Here It Goes" where he was featured in most of the song. Coolio also was in 2000 movie called Gangland.

In 2001 he was a special guest on Beat the Geeks. In 2002 Coolio guest starred in the hit series Charmed, as a Lazarus demon, in the episode Marry Got Found. He played himself in the episode Coolio Runnings of the animated comedy Duckman. He also voiced Kwanzaa-bot, a one-off character featured in the "A Tale Of Two Santas" episode of Futurama. In fact, according to the DVD commentary, the producers of Futurama were so impressed by his range of voices, that they said he could do voice-over work professionally.

In 2002, Coolio was a contestant on Celebrity Fear Factor. During the third round, he referred to himself as "El Cool Magnifico" (which would become the title of his fourth studio album). That same year, he appeared on Celebrity Bootcamp and won. Coolio starred in the 2003 made-for-TV movie Dracula 3000, in which he played a space-faring stoner named 187. Coolio played a role of US Navy sailor Franky in 2004 Croatian film Ta divna splitska noć (Wonderful night in Split), film is dealing with drug scene of that coast. He made another television movie appearance in 2005 as a military officer in the horror film Pterodactyl, which was a devastating disaster. That year, he also appeared in Joey on the episode "Joey and the Poker."

In 2006, Coolio appeared in the "Tanner's Ghost" episode of the Celebrity Paranormal Project and got insulted because of his horrifying breath, and yellow teeth.