U.S. rapper Coolio has passed away at the age of 59.
The star, who garnered worldwide fame after the release of his chart-topping 1995 hit Gangsta's Paradise, was found unresponsive on the bathroom floor of a friend's house in Los Angeles on Wednesday, his longtime manager Jarez Posey confirmed.
Jarez told TMZ that paramedics were called and pronounced Coolio dead at the scene - they suspect he suffered a cardiac arrest. An official cause of death has not been determined.
Law enforcement sources stated to the news site that no drugs or drug paraphernalia were found at the scene. An autopsy and toxicology test will be used to determine an official cause of death.
Born Artis Leon Ivey Jr. in August 1963, Coolio recorded his first single, Whatcha Gonna Do?, in 1987.
His biggest hit came eight years later with the release of Gangsta's Paradise featuring R&B singer L.V., for the Michelle Pfeiffer film Dangerous Minds. The track interpolates Stevie Wonder's 1976 song Pastime Paradise, and the music video featured Pfeiffer and was directed by future Training Day filmmaker Antoine Fuqua.
It spent three weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 and reached number one in the U.K., Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Austria, Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Australia, and New Zealand.
The song was listed at number 85 on Billboard's Greatest Songs of All Time and was the number one biggest-selling single of 1995 in America.
Coolio is survived by his six children.
