Precious little in Coolio’s career had suggested he would even entertain something so bleak as “Gangsta’s Paradise”. “Do I have to use a gat to show you where I’m at?” he rapped on 1991’s Ain’t a Damn ...

FILE - Coolio appears at the 2015 ASCAP Rhythm & Soul Awards in Beverly Hills, Calif., on June 25, 2015. The rapper, who was among hip-hop’s biggest names of the 1990s with hits including “Gangsta’s ...

Coolio already had a hip-hop party song ready to go when he was asked to contribute a song to the teen comedy Clueless in 1995. “Rolling with My Homies” actually featured the original lyrics to ...