How DJ Thump Remembers Coolio
WOW! We just spoke last week bro. Our conversations were always about how to improve. I am holding back tears as I write this. I remember in 1995 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California with the 40 Thevz, Candyman and Tone Loc. Coolio was all about perfection. He never wanted to outshine the next artist. Instead he would raise the bar for everyone. “There’s always enough to eat for us all!”
This is the type of guy that would give you the shirt off of his back. We would never get off the phone or leave one another without saying “All Love G.” That was his way of saying I love you, and if you hung up without saying it, he’d call you back or text you.
Coolio was an extra ordinary guy. I remember when he told me he was going on the hit TV show Fear Factor, I was like… bro. you are afraid of snakes and foreign insects. we laughed and talked about it for weeks. But I wasn’t surprised when he won beating Chyna, David Hasselhoff, Brook Burns, Donnie Osmond and John Travolta’s wife Kelly Preston to take home the $50,000 prize that went to his favorite charity, inner city kids. In order to get the cash, Coolio had to pull flags while riding on the roof of a fast moving bus. He had to stick his head in a box for 3 minutes that was filled with scorpions, millipedes and worms, and run on circular plank that was suspended 100 feet in the air.
He also won the Fox ‘Celebrity Boot Camp.‘ He was so competitive at everything. He would beat his kids and their friends in video games sending them home upset because he talked so much trash. And as competitive as he was, he was a bigger soar loser.
I can say that Coolio has accomplished so much and fulfilled many of his desires. Coolio placed six hits on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart, including the No. 1 smash “Gangsta’s Paradise,” featuring L.V, from the film Dangerous Minds. The single spent three weeks atop the list in 1995 and finished as the year-end No. 1 song on the Hot 100. It also ruled the Hot Rap Songs list for 11 consecutive weeks. The track would go on to win the Billboard Music Award for single of the year, and a Grammy Award for best rap solo performance. In 2021, “Gangsta’s Paradise” ranked among the 100 and with all of that he stayed humbled and down to earth.
Rest in Gangsta Paradise my friend! Coolio aka El Cool Magnifico! “All Love G.”
