Coolio's Never Been One To Write Trendy Songs

The Compton, California rapper Coolio (aka Artis Ivey, Jr) was one of hip hop's first major crossover stars. His Gangsta's Paradise — featuring R&B singer LV — was 1995's top-selling single and won a Grammy. "Weird Al" Yankovic even parodied it.

Over 20 years later, and Ivey is an in-demand nostalgia act. He'll return to Australia as part of June's I Love The 90's Tour with Salt N Pepa, Vanilla Ice and Color Me Badd. The international franchise has been so successful as to expand into cruises Stateside, with the inaugural Ship-Hop happening in 2018. But Ivey maintains that he "transcends" old school rap. "I've always felt like I've made timeless music," Ivey says from his Las Vegas base. "I never write trendy songs and use a lot of trendy words — I don't do that so that, when the song gets a little older, people will be like, 'Oh, that was a long time ago, nobody don't talk about that no more.' The kind of things that I talk about, people will be talking about for the rest of their lives."

"To tell you the truth, I can not remember not one second of that!" 

Rapping in the late '80s, Ivey joined the notable WC And The Maad Circle. He then inked a solo contract with Tommy Boy Records. The West Coaster broke through with the G-funk Fantastic Voyage from 1994's It Takes A Thief. But today Ivey is synonymous with Gangsta's Paradise — recorded for the Dangerous Minds movie, but also the title track of his second album. Borrowing from Stevie Wonder's Pastime Paradise, the song universalised gangsta rap.

Ivey subsequently hit the studio with Aussie popster Peter Andre — guesting on his 'urban' single All Night, All Right alongside Warren G. "It came out pretty good," Ivey says, pausing. "To tell you the truth, I can not remember not one second of that! It's gone from my memory, for some reason."

Yet Ivey's urban-pop manoeuvres prompted a backlash. Despite charting highly with the classical-sampling C U When U Get There from 1997's My Soul, he lost his deal. Still, Ivey landed acting roles — cameoing in Batman & Robin. He participated in reality TV shows. And he's branded himself as a credible celebrity chef, his speciality "ghetto gourmet". Ivey hasn't necessarily put music on the back-burner. This showman tours consistently. He performed at 2012's Falls Festival. ("It was real cool.") In January Ivey aired Kill Again, a #BlackLivesMatter anthem exposing the reverberations of gang culture and police brutality. "It was just something that I wanted to bring some attention to, that's all," he says. Though Ivey has touted an EP, he's non-committal about future album projects. "I'ma kind of play it by ear for right now. The market is overcrowded with bombs. There's a lot of wack music out there — and there's some good music out there... A lotta people don't make albums. I think that the time of the concept album is probably over. But I may or may not do another album. I can't really say at this point. I'm just doing what I feel."