Paramedics tried to revive rapper Coolio for 45 minutes after he was found unresponsive in a bathroom at a downtown Los Angeles home Wednesday afternoon, according to reports.
The 59-year-old Grammy-winning musician — whose 1995 single, Gangsta’s Paradise, went on to sell more than 5 million copies worldwide — was found unresponsive on the floor of a friend’s home, according to his longtime manager Jarez Posey.
He was pronounced dead at the scene.
No cause of death was given, but on Thursday, TMZ offered more details on his unexpected death.
Emergency medical technicians administered CPR for 45 minutes before declaring him dead, according to the site.
The hip-hop superstar, who was born Artis Ivey Jr, had just come down from Las Vegas, where he lived, to Los Angeles to either renew his passport or get a new one.
According to Posey, Coolio had to get his travel papers in order ahead of some shows he had scheduled in Germany for the weekend. The two men had talked on the phone about going to the passport office in San Diego after Coolio encountered an undisclosed problem when attempting to get the job done in Los Angeles.
The rapper was at a friend’s on Wednesday afternoon when he went to the bathroom but didn’t return “for quite a while”, according to TMZ.
His friend became concerned and started calling him. Since Coolio didn’t respond, the friend went into the bathroom and found Coolio laying on the floor.
No drugs or drug paraphernalia were found in the bathroom, law enforcement sources told the outlet Wednesday night.
An autopsy, as well as a toxicology test, will be used to determine the rapper’s official cause of death. – New York Daily News/Tribune News Service
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