‘Kenan & Kel’ and More Celebrities React to Coolio’s Death
In the wake of rapper Coolio's death Wednesday (Sept. 28), many famous faces and collaborators have been paying tribute to the hip-hop icon, as well as offering their condolences to his friends and family, on social media.
One of his Coolio's most beloved performances — at least for Gen X'ers and '90s kids — was the theme song for the Nickelodeon comedy show Kenan & Kel, which aired between 1996 and 2000.
Coolio famously created and rapped the theme song. Listen below:
The show's titular stars Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell both honored Coolio on their respective social media accounts.
Thompson shared his tribute on Instagram.
"Damn homie!!! Rest in Power," he wrote in his Instagram Story. See below:
Mitchell also paid tribute to Coolio on Instagram.
"Rest in Heaven @coolio! We recently spoke a few months ago laughing and having such a good time. So many great memories with you, bro," he wrote.
See his full post below:
Nickelodeon also honored the rap star, sharing a series of photos on him on Twitter, where they called him a "true '90s Nick legend."
Other stars such as Viola Davis, LL Cool J, Weird Al Yankovic and more also paid tribute to Coolio on social media.
See their tweets below:
Coolio, real name Artis Leon Ivey Jr., passed away at the age of 59 this week. His longtime manager confirmed the news to TMZ, revealing the suspected cause of death was cardiac arrest. However, an official cause of death has not been revealed as of publishing.
The rapper's career kicked off in the '80s before he rose to fame in the '90s. He scored his first No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart with his song "Gangsta's Paradise."
He scored two additional Top 10 hits over the course of his career: "Fantastic Voyage," which was released in 1994 and peaked at No. 3; and "1, 2, 3, 4 (Sumpin' New)," which was released in 1996 and peaked at No. 5.