LOS ANGELES — Coolio, the rapper who was among hip-hop's biggest names of the 1990s with hits including "Gangsta's Paradise" and "Fantastic Voyage," died Wednesday at age 59, his manager said.

Coolio died at the Los Angeles home of a friend, longtime manager Jarez Posey told The Associated Press. The cause was not immediately clear.

Coolio won a Grammy for best solo rap performance for "Gangsta's Paradise," the 1995 hit from the soundtrack of the Michelle Pfeiffer film "Dangerous Minds" that sampled Stevie Wonder's 1976 song "Pastime Paradise" and was played constantly on MTV.

The Grammy, and the height of his popularity, came in 1996, amid a fierce feud between the hip-hop communities of the two coasts, which would take the lives of Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G. soon after.

Coolio managed to stay mostly above the conflict.

"I'd like to claim this Grammy on behalf of the whole hip-hop nation, West Coast, East Coast, and worldwide, united we stand, divided we fall," he said from the stage as he accepted the award.

Born in Monessen, Pennsylvania south of Pittsburgh, Coolio moved to Compton, California. He spent some time as a teen in Northern California, where his mother sent him because she felt the city was too dangerous.

He said in interviews that he started rapping at 15 and knew by 18 it was what he wanted to do with his life, but would go to community college and work as a volunteer firefighter and in airport security before devoting himself full-time to the hip-hop scene.

His career took off with the 1994 release of his debut album on Tommy Boy Records, "It Takes a Thief." It's opening track, "Fantastic Voyage," would reach No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100.

A year later, "Gangsta's Paradise" would become a No. 1 single, with its dark opening lyrics:

"As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I take a look at my life and realize there's not much left, 'cause I've been blastin' and laughin' so long, that even my mama thinks that my mind is gone."

Social media lit up with reactions to the unexpected death.

. "I witness first hand this man's grind to the top of the industry. Rest In Peace, @Coolio."

 "RIP Coolio" along with a picture of the two men hugging.

Coolio had said in an interview at the time it was released that he wasn't cool with Yankovic's 1996 "Gangsta's Paradise" parody, "Amish Paradise." But the two later made peace.

The rapper would never again have a song nearly as big as "Gangsta's Paradise," but had subsequent hits with 1996's "1, 2, 3, 4 (Sumpin' New)" (1996), and 1997's "C U When U Get There."

His career album sales totaled 4.8 million, with 978 million on-demand streams of his songs, according to Luminate. He would be nominated for six Grammys overall.

And with his distinctive persona he would become a cultural staple, acting occasionally, starring in a reality show about parenting called "Coolio's Rules," providing a voice for an episode of the animated show "Gravity Falls" and providing the theme music for the Nickelodeon sitcom "Kenan & Kel."

He had occasional legal troubles, including a 1998 conviction in Stuttgart, Germany, where an boutique shop owner said he punched her when she tried to stop him from taking merchandise without paying. He was sentenced to six months probation and fined $30,000.


He was married to Josefa Salinas from 1996 to 2000. They had four children together.


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The Associated Press

The artist, one of hip-hop's biggest names of the 1990s with hits including "Gangsta's Paradise" and "Fantastic Voyage," died Wednesday at age 59, his manager said.


Tracey Nearmy/Getty Images

Coolio has died at 59

On September 23, 2017, the world lost acclaimed soul singer, Charles Bradley. Releasing his debut album, 

 in 2011 at the age of 62, Bradley would go on to become a beloved figure in the music world. 

Charles Bradley - two songs at The Current (2013, 2016)

Bradley visited The Current studio on three occasions: in 

. Over that time, The Current’s production manager, Derrick Stevens, 

. “I think people miss his music and they miss his realness,” Stevens 

 made one year after Bradley passed. “When Charles was on stage, you knew that’s where that man wanted to be; he wanted to be nowhere else except on that stage, singing his songs, making people have fun. He would get offstage, he would go around, he would hug people in the crowd. I mean, that was just Charles Bradley. I miss the guy like crazy.” 

Listen to The Current host Jill Riley’s hourlong celebration of "the Screaming Eagle of Soul," Charles Bradley. You'll hear Charles Bradley talk about his rise onto the music scene, as well as his newfound affection for rock music. Plus, listen for some of the exclusive live recordings captured over the years when he visited The Current studio.

Don’t miss the story, the legacy he left behind and the music of Charles Bradley.

Remembering Charles Bradley, “The Screaming Eagle of Soul,” is produced by Derrick Stevens.

come from Charles Bradley’s live sessions in The Current studio. 

Listen to The Current host Jill Riley and producer Derrick Stevens’ hourlong celebration of the life and music of the late soul singer extraordinaire, Charles Bradley. 


Remembering Charles Bradley, 'The Screaming Eagle of Soul'

Rich Fury/Getty Images for Arroyo Seco Weekend

Nate Ryan | MPR

Concurrent Space and Reload.it battled for DJ supremacy last Saturday. Check out Isaiah Stillwell’s photos of the event.


Isaiah Stillwell

SPUN OUT DJ Battle

Derrick Gichaba

Denzel Curry brought massive energy to St. Paul. Check out Derrick Gichaba’s photos of the show.


Denzel Curry, AG Club, Redveil, and PlayThatBoiZay at the Palace Theatre

Each week, we add new music, older tracks, which are known as “Gold adds”, and tracks that might not fit our general format, but still deserve a place in rotation because they serve our mission of showing the depth, breadth, and influence of Black musical expression - These are known as “Variety adds.”

We’re sharing this to get you excited to listen and to open up the floor for feedback and suggestions. If you want to request a song, 

. If you make music and want it considered for rotation, 

 If you want to give feedback directly, reach out to me at jgreen@mpr.org.

Shoutout to the Voice, Sanni B., for her great suggestions for Gold adds. This week on The Message, she's painting pictures and soundtracking a day at the museum. Science and Industry, Children's Museums, and more. Don't forget to tune in from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday through Thursday to hear her live!

 Spotify playlist. This will be updated weekly with all the new adds and will be a central hub for listeners like you to dip your toe in the pool before diving in.

“Roll With It” feat. Lazerbeak and Professor C

“Dancing In the Shadows” feat. Clementine Douglas

“I. The Worst Guys” feat. Chance the Rapper

“Still Tippin'” feat. Slim Thug & Paul Wall

“Take Me There” feat. Blackstreet, Blinky Blink & Mya

Julian Green built and manages the music library for Carbon Sound and oversees content creation.  


Julian Green

All of the tracks added to rotation on Carbon Sound the week of September 26, 2022.


Natalia Toledo

New on Carbon Sound

New Music on Carbon Sound - Week of September 26, 2022

NEW YORK — Rihanna will take center stage at February's Super Bowl halftime show.

declined to perform in the 2019 Super Bowl halftime show

 out of solidarity with Colin Kaepernick, will headline the 2023 Super Bowl, the NFL announced Sunday along with Jay-Z's Roc Nation and Apple Music. Rihanna 

 of an arm outstretched holding an NFL football.

"Rihanna is a generational talent, a woman of humble beginnings who has surpassed expectations at every turn," Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter, whose Roc Nation is an executive producer of the show, said in a statement. "A person born on the small island of Barbados who became one of the most prominent artists ever. Self-made in business and entertainment."

The Super Bowl will take place at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, on Feb. 12. After years of Pepsi's sponsorship, the upcoming halftime show will be sponsored by Apple Music.

Rihanna earlier said she turned down a similar opportunity for the 2019 Super Bowl that was ultimately headlined by Maroon 5. At the time, many artists voiced support for Kaepernick, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback whose 2016 national anthem protests sparked debate throughout football.

"I couldn't dare do that. For what?" Rihanna told Vogue in 2019. "Who gains from that? Not my people. I just couldn't be a sellout. I couldn't be an enabler. There's things within that organization that I do not agree with at all, and I was not about to go and be of service to them in any way," she said of the league.


With sales of more than 250 million records worldwide, Rihanna ranks as one of the best-selling female artists ever. Her last album was 2016's "Anti."


The singer, who declined to perform in 2019 out of solidarity with Colin Kaepernick, will headline February's show.


Mike Coppola/Getty Images

Rihanna will take center stage at the Super Bowl halftime show

Pharoah Sanders, the revered and influential tenor saxophonist who explored and extended the boundaries of his instrument, notably alongside John Coltrane in the 1960s, died on Saturday morning in Los Angeles. His death was announced in a post on social media by the record label Luaka Bop, which had released his celebrated 2021 album 

 and confirmed by a publicist who worked on the release. Sanders was 81 years old. 

Spirit was the overwhelming force in Sanders' music: It emanated from his tenor and soprano saxophones in fiery blasts or a murmuring flicker, and it suffused his ensembles, which featured several generations of improvisers equally willing to dig in or soar free. "Sanders has consistently had bands that could not only create a lyrical near-mystical Afro-Eastern world," wrote one champion, the poet-critic Amiri Baraka, "but [also] sweat hot fire music in continuing display of the so-called 'energy music' of the '60s."

That combination of traits characterized Sanders' defining solo work of the '70s on Impulse! Records, which had been Coltrane's label home, and was still a welcoming harbor for experimentalism. Among these albums are 

, consisting of one album-length improvisation, and 

, which nudges a post-Coltrane language into the realm of Afrocentric groove. 

Sanders' single best-known piece of music is "The Creator Has a Master Plan," an expansive performance from 1969 that peaks in wailing cacophony but ends with a buoyant, soulful vocal refrain. Originally split across two sides of the 1969 LP 

, the track was later issued on CD as a single track, nearly 33 minutes long.

Pharoah was born Ferrell Sanders on Oct. 13, 1940, in Little Rock, Ark. His love of music began at home, through his choir-leading grandfather. After high school — and a switch from the clarinet to the alto saxophone, before finally settling into the tenor sax — Sanders moved to the West Coast around 1959, attending Oakland Junior College, expanding his musical palette and pursuing the horizon, sitting in with avant-garde saxophonists like Sonny Simmons and Dewey Redman. While there, Sanders first met and befriended John Coltrane, though they wouldn't work together until many years later.

In 1961, Sanders relocated to New York, looking to join the city's fecund jazz scene, where Coltrane was a reigning figure. Sanders' landing in New York was rocky, however, resulting in intermittent homelessness as he practiced, sporadically, with Sun Ra and his Arkestra. (Sun Ra, it's said, was the one who encouraged him to take the name Pharoah.) Eventually, he was forced to pawn his horn.

Sanders' fortunes in New York slowly but surely turned around as he established a solo career, and by 1965 he was a member of what would be Coltrane's final quartet. 

, recorded in 1965 and released the following year, was a late-in-life turning point for Coltrane and, by extension, Sanders, who would become known for using his instrument in novel — anarchic and atonal — ways. Last year, Impulse! released the archival recording 

it features Sanders as a vital addition to Coltrane's quartet, expanding on his most heralded musical statement. (

 a separate album recorded during the same engagement, had long been a touchstone for an avant-garde left to forge the path ahead after Coltrane's death in '67.)

Even given his pioneering work, Sanders downplayed his technical achievements in favor of the emotional resonance he was seeking. "I'm not so much of a technical player myself," Sanders explained in 

. "I'm probably not that much of an intellectual player, as some other musicians. What I do is... express. That's what I do."

Sanders' stature grew beyond the jazz avant-garde space as he became something of a spiritual elder, and his expressiveness survived in new contexts. In 2021, he released the album 

 in collaboration with the electronic musician Sam Shepherd, who records as Floating Points, and the London Symphony Orchestra that was widely and immediately hailed as one of the year's best. A patient and meditative album, it sometimes feels like a structure built for the sole purpose of allowing Sanders' voice and saxophone to levitate.

For many years, the jazz establishment lagged behind the African American community in appreciating Sanders' work, especially apart from his affiliation with Coltrane. But the power of his example and the sweep of his music helped set the framework for an ascendant class of artists like tenor saxophonists Kamasi Washington, James Brandon Lewis and Nubya Garcia, and multi-reedist Shabaka Hutchings. 

"I find it difficult to regard Pharoah Sanders as an individual," wrote Hutchings in an 

 for The Vinyl Factory. "I intuitively consider him as representational of a creative principle that centers communalism as the driving force from which spirit is manifested through sound."  

Andrew Flanagan

Nate Chinen

Sanders, revered as one of the avant-garde's greatest tenor saxophonists, was a member of John Coltrane's final quartet. His expressive playing laid a path for generations of musicians.


Omar Marques

The Creator Has A Master Plan

Pharoah Sanders, giant of spirit-driven jazz, dies at 81

Carbon Sound’s Host Sanni B. met with Mati at the MPR booth on the corner of Judson & Nelson at State Fair for a special live session. 

 is a Minneapolis-based artist, whose latest single 

 provides a laid back, pensive late summer anthem. 

Learn more about Mati and listen to "Please Don't Tempt Me", streaming now on carbonsound.fm.

Camera Operators: Evan Clark, Tom Campbell 

 to watch future in-studio performances and fan reviews.

Carbon Sound’s Host Sanni B. met with Mati at the MPR booth on the corner of Judson & Nelson at State Fair for a special live session. 


Mati - Carbon Sound Session LIVE at Minnesota State Fair

Mati - Missed Calls (live for Carbon Sound)

Mati - Please Don't Tempt Me (live for Carbon Sound)

Mati - Sweet Life (live for Carbon Sound)

 was recording her smash hit 1995 pop album 

, she and her fellow musicians were also secretly putting together a grunge album. 

Carey first mentioned the existence of the secret album in her 

. A version of the record was quietly released at the time under the band name Chick, titled 

, Carey has shared that recordings of the alt-rock album with 

 lead vocals have been found. And she hinted that the elusive project will finally be released. 

"I think this unearthed version will become, yes, something we should hear," she told 

. She suggested, without providing details, that she was even building on the record with an unnamed musician: "I'm working on a version of something where there'll be another artist working on this with me as well." 

Carey described the project — recorded after long days in the studio while working on hits such as "Always Be My Baby" — as an outlet for herself during a period when she felt particularly constrained. 

"I had no freedom during that time. That was my freedom, making that record," she told the podcast.

 she was inspired by bands such as Hole and Green Day at the time. She adopted an alter-ego, as she recalled in her book: "I was playing with the style of the breezy-grunge, punk-light white female singers who were popular at the time. You know the ones who seemed to be so carefree with their feelings and their image." 

At the time, she recalls that there was some unease about her grunge lyrics. "I honestly wanted to put the record out back then under, you know, the same pseudonym, just put it out and be like, you know whatever, let them discover that it's me," she told 

. "But that idea was kind of stomped and squashed."

Carey said she even did the album art — a cockroach and some scrawled lipstick. She remembers driving around, shouting lyrics to songs she wrote that nobody knew.

Ultimately, she said that a friend of hers named Clarissa Dane recorded lead vocals and wrote a grunge song with Carey, and it was released with Carey on backup vocals. That version is no longer widely available.


But it seems like the version that Carey wants us to hear may be coming soon.


Merrit Kennedy

Carey has shared that recordings of the alternative album with her lead vocals have been found. And she hinted that the elusive project will finally be released. 


Mark Baker/Sony Music Archive

Mariah Carey says we should finally hear her secret 1995 grunge album

What a week for adds! Some great Afrobeats, new Kelela AND Blood Orange (!!), and some 

. Not to mention tracks by viral sensation Ice Spice and great gold picks by Sani. Don't forget to tune in from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday through Thursday to hear her live!

“Let's Get Married” feat. Run [ReMarqable Remix]

“No Hands” feat. Roscoe Dash and Wale

“Browning in the Jungle (Progressive Sound Remix)”

All of the tracks added to rotation on Carbon Sound the week of September 19, 2022.


Stories

Coolio has died at 59

Remembering Charles Bradley, 'The Screaming Eagle of Soul'

SPUN OUT DJ Battle

Get the Carbon Sound app

Denzel Curry, AG Club, Redveil, and PlayThatBoiZay at the Palace Theatre

New Music on Carbon Sound - Week of September 26, 2022

Rihanna will take center stage at the Super Bowl halftime show

Pharoah Sanders, giant of spirit-driven jazz, dies at 81

Connect with Carbon Sound

Mati - Carbon Sound Session LIVE at Minnesota State Fair

Mariah Carey says we should finally hear her secret 1995 grunge album

New Music on Carbon Sound - Week of September 19, 2022

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