The rapper began working on the album before his death at age 59 last year
Long Live Coolio, the forthcoming album from the “Gangsta’s Paradise” rapper, will be released later this year as the first posthumous project since he died at age 59 last year. The announcement of the record, which will feature material Coolio was working on prior to his death, arrives alongside the new single “TAG, ‘You It’” assisted by collaborators Too $hort and DJ Wino.
The song and video were presumably completed before his death, with Coolio making an appearance alongside Too $hort in a boxing ring, where a group of women takes turns tackling each other to the mat. Ken Francis and Kniknotti directed the visual.
Long Live Coolio will mark the first full-length release from the rapper since 2009 when he shared From the Bottom 2 the Top.
“I had a period where I wasn’t sure why I was still doing the music, and I hadn’t put out an album in quite some time,” Coolio told Sunday World in an interview before his death. “Now I’m working on a new album and that’s not because I’m into the money or anything. It’s first and foremost because I’m motivated again to do music and I’m doing it for myself. I vowed to myself many years ago that if it ever got to the point where I was just doing it for the money then I would quit.”
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Coolio is also set to receive a proper sendoff for his work as a voice actor with a posthumous appearance on Futurama. His character Kwanzaa-bot last appeared in a 2010 holiday special, but series executive producer David X. Cohen has teased the release of new material later this year.
“Coolio was one of my favorite guests,” Cohen told TMZ. “He was always totally upbeat and genuinely enjoyed coming in to record as his character Kwanzaa-bot.” Their last session together was only a few weeks before his death in anticipation of Hulu’s 20-episode revival of Futurama, which last aired in 2013.
