A posthumous Coolio album has been announced

The Coolio estate has announced a new posthumous album titled Long Live Coolio. The album is set to include features by Too $hort, Naughty By Nature’s Treach and more. The first single, ‘TAG ‘You It’ featuring $hort, is slated for arrival on March 17th.

The lead single comes alongside a new video filmed before Coolio’s death in September 2022. The song and accompanying visual, according to a recent press release, “pay homage to ’90s Hip Hop”. The track has been described as “catchy, raunchy, and raw”, while the video is set to be “extravagant and humorous”.

Long Live Coolio marks the ‘Gangsta’s Paradise’ rapper’s first album since 2009’s Bottom 2 the Top. Coolio passed away on September 28th, 2022, at the age of 59. The rapper was visiting a friend’s house in LA when he went to the bathroom and passed out on the floor. Paramedics were called to the home but were unable to resuscitate him.

His death came as he was finalising his deal for an extended Las Vegas residency, which would have seen the rapper perform ten dates at Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino between October and November. He was also on the verge of reprising his Futurama character “Kwanzaa-bot” for the show’s forthcoming Hulu revival.

At the start of this year, the rapper’s custom headstone, featuring photos and a homage to ‘Gangsta’s Paradise’, was unveiled to the public. Coolio’s girlfriend Mimi enlisted a stonemason called Cemetary Tim, who has previously worked on headstones for Nate Dogg, Eazy-E and Anthony Johnson.

Coolio’s remains were cremated, but his family wanted a physical place to visit and pay their respects. The headstone has been set at an undisclosed location in LA.