Artist · chart history
Coolio
Solo artist Monessen United States US rapper, actor, chef & record producer
Coolio is an artist from Monessen. Coolio has 7 chart appearances on 7 radio countdowns from 6 stations on RockLists, spanning 1995–2026. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Gangsta's Paradise”, which appears on 6 lists with a best position of #3. The station that charted Coolio most often is Triple J (Australia (national)), with 2 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 1995.
Artis Leon Ivey Jr., born on August 1, 1963 and known to the world as Coolio, first got noticed in the gangsta rap group WC and the Maad Circle before stepping out on his own with It Takes a Thief in 1994. That record, on Tommy Boy, gave him "Fantastic Voyage", a loose, sunny party jam with a funk bottom.
Then came "Gangsta's Paradise" in 1995, and everything changed. Slow, grave and hymn-like, it put the street stories of gangsta rap in front of listeners who had never gone near the genre, won him the Grammy for Best Rap Solo Performance in 1996, and is credited with pushing hip-hop out to a far bigger audience. The albums Gangsta's Paradise and My Soul kept the run going, with "1, 2, 3, 4 (Sumpin' New)" and "C U When U Get There" among the singles, and all told he sold 4.8 million albums in the US across nine releases.
Later on he turned up on reality TV with Coolio's Rules, cooked his way through the web series Cookin' with Coolio and put out a cookbook. He died on September 28, 2022.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Coolio on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gangsta's Paradise | 6 | #3 | – | 1995 | |
| 2 | Fantastic Voyage | 1 | #196 | – | – |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
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