Coolio dead at 59

Coolio died Wednesday in Los Angeles... TMZ has learned.

The hugely successful 90s rapper was visiting a friend late Wednesday afternoon when he passed away.

Coolio's longtime manager, Jarez, says that Coolio went to the bathroom at his friend's house, but when he didn't come out after a while... the friend kept calling him, and finally came in and found Coolio lying on the ground.

We're told the friend called paramedics, who arrived and pronounced Coolio dead at the scene - and Jarez tells us paramedics suspect he's suffered cardiac arrest. No official cause of death has been determined.

Coolio, real name Artis Leon Ivey Jr., emerged on the L.A. rap scene in the late '80s but exploded nationally in 1995 when he released "Gangsta's Paradise" for the soundtrack to Michelle Pfeiffer's film, "Dangerous Minds."

01/13/22 TMZ.com

The song reached #1 and stayed there for 3 weeks.

While "Paradise" became his signature hit, Coolio had several others... including 1994's "Fantastic Voyage" -- which reached No. 3 on Billboard's Hot 100 -- as well as "1.2 ,3,4 (Sumpin' New)" and "It's All Live (Now)".

Coolio was 59.

RIP

Originally posted -- 5:41 PM PT