Rapper Coolio dead at 59

Rapper Coolio has died in the United States at the age of 59.

It’s understood he was visiting a friend when he suffered a cardiac arrest.

Emergency services were called to the home but the rapper was pronounced dead at the scene.

Coolio, whose real name is Artis Leon Ivey Jr., came onto the L.A. rap scene in the late 1980s.

But he shot to stardom in the mid-90s with the song Gangsta’s Paradise which was recorded for the soundtrack to the movie Dangerous Minds.

The song was a massive worldwide hit and spent 14 weeks at number one on the Australian charts.