Coolio Concerts Setlist

Artis Leon Ivey Jr., better known by his stage name Coolio, is an American rapper, music producer, and actor. He was born on August 1, 1963 in Compton, California. Coolio grew up in the rough town of Compton. He attended community college after high school, and then worked as a volunteer firefighter and security guard before getting into rap music.

He recorded his first single in 1987, with the title “Whatcha Gonna Do?”. In the meantime, he started making connections in the Los Angeles rap world, and joined rapper WC’s hip hop collective "WC and the Maad Circle". In 1991, they released the album “Ain't a Damn Thang Changed”.

Coolio’s debut album as a solo artist came out in July 1994, titled “It Takes a Thief”. It was released by Warner Bros. Records, and became a massive hit, peaking at the #5 spot on Billboard's R&B/Hip Hop chart, and at the #8 spot on the not genre-specific Billboard 200 chart.

However, his real big break came the next year. In 1995, he produced the single “Gangsta’s Paradise" with R&B singer L.V. featured on the track. It was made for the 1995 film drama “Dangerous Minds”, which is about a high school in a poverty and crime-ridden town in California. Gangsta's Paradise topped the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for 3 weeks upon its release. It later became one of the biggest hip hop classics of all time.

Coolio has released a total of 8 full studio albums during his career. The best selling one among them is “Gangsta’s Paradise”, named after his hit single, which came out in November 1995 and sold over 2 million copies in the United States alone. Meanwhile, the latest new Coolio album was released in July 2009, with the title “From the Bottom 2 the Top”. In 2017, while travling to a Coolio concert in Singapore, he was denied entry to the country by the local immigration authority. The reasons for this are not known to this day.

Coolio’s biggest hits to date are “Fantastic Voyage” (1994), the aforementioned “Gangsta’s Paradise” (1995) featuring L.V., and “C U When U Get There” (1997). He also appeared in the movies “Batman & Robin” (1997), and “Dracula 3000” (2004), and performed the theme song for the Nickelodeon sitcom “Kenan & Kel” (1996-2000). Check where the next Coolio concert is playing on the page above.