Compton, CA rapper Coolio first came in to the scene as a part of Tha Maad Circle along with W.C. and his brother DJ Crazy Toones. According to Coolio, he was forced to start a solo career after his group-mates left to go on tour with Ice Cube and he was left off. If Coolio was down and out it sure wasn’t long, because his single “Fantastic Voyage” from of his debut album It Takes A Thief, took off like a firestorm on the radio airwaves and video, producing a certified hit for the pointy hair-braided rapper. Success would continue for him with other notable hits such as “Rollin’ With The Homies” off of The Clueless Soundtrack and The Evasions sampled dance favorite “Sumpin’ New (1, 2, 3, 4.).” But it was the monster-smash Grammy Award winning hit known as “Gangsta’s Paradise” off of the Dangerous Minds Soundtrack that propelled Coolio in to the multi-platinum stratosphere as the single sold several millions of copies. Now a veteran of the Hip-Hop game, the 44 year old artist has recorded a new album, still tours heavily overseas and recently launched his own cooking show called Cooking With Coolio. The pace, however, isn’t slowing down as he is also joined the Reality TV ranks with a brand new show debuting this October on the Oxygen channel about his home-life raising his near adult children. Coolio was out in Marina Del Rey, CA to talk about his new fantastic voyages and the real deal about his much publicized recent arrest – to which he also has some unkind words for a certain online tabloid. AllHipHop.com: Your recent arrest on June 10th was widely publicized. What’s your side of the story?Coolio: I got arrested for a $10,000 warrant that I supposedly had in 2004 for driving with a suspended license but I can show you the printout from the DMV that says it was dismissed. I have a homegirl at the DMV and even she told me, “They are just f**king with you.” She confirmed that it was dismissed in 2004. My license got suspended in 2006 on some child support s**t but I wasn’t worried about it at the time because I was touring. However when I came back I went to get my license back. Here was the situation; my daughter who is 20 years old and who I haven’t had to pay child support for in 2 years, was owed a hundred and thirty f**kin’ a** dollars! I sent my pops to pay the money to the West Covina D.A. and my license was unsuspended. Let me tell you, TMZ, the police and the clubs all work together. The police were sitting down the street from the club waiting for me. They knew everything that I was doing there. It was even set up to turn me away from the club on camera so I could look bad. They [TMZ] only show you what they want you to see. They edited that s**t. Did you see me handing the rose? The video dude asked me what that was for and I told him that I give all of my b***hes roses when I leave the club. They edited that out. Everybody on the scene was laughing at him. AllHipHop.com: What was the initial reason for being pulled over by the police?Coolio: My tags were expired. It was in the beginning of June but the tags just expired at the end of May. I got everything back the next day though. If I had everything they said that I had, then why did I get my car back the next day? I’m even going to a court date on July 1st in Rancho Cucamonga. I don’t even have to go but I am going just to make sure that they take all of this out of their computers. I am going there to act an a** and I hope that TMZ comes [laughs]. AllHipHop.com: So you feel that all of this was done to make you look like a fool for entertainment?Coolio: I was called a has-been, blah blah blah, whatever. Like I told the TMZ motherf**kers after their next video on me where they kept asking me about Lil Wayne, “I don’t give a f**k what anybody says about me and I never have.”I am going to start saying other s**t to them. I am not going to threaten them but I am going to tell TMZ next time that I know a hundred motherf**kers that want to do something to them and that they need to watch their backs [laughs]. I don’t have no animosity towards them but I know people that do. If y’all [TMZ] keep it up, y’all going to start getting knocked out. I got some homies man that are talking about socking motherf**kers in the back of their heads, stomping their cameras out, and knocking their f**kin’ teeth out. Let them keep f**king around! AllHipHop.com: What was the basis behind not getting in the club that night?Coolio: The basis was that there was too many people in the club but as they are telling us that, five people walked out. It was already 1:30 am and I was just going to have a f**kin’ drink. I wasn’t going to dance or go get a table – just go to the bar, have a drink and look at a couple of honeys – that’s all I wanted to do. I asked them to get the owners and they were like, “No. They already said no more people.” I told them, “F**k you.” But TMZ edits all of that and twists it up. If they would have shown the real thing you would have seen that I was a G about my sh*t. I was talking s**t to everybody.
“I don’t have celebrity friends. I don’t hang out with them because they are too wishy washy – rappers included. I don’t know what motherf**kers sexual preferences are. I don’t want to get caught up in nothing. I see some of them getting drunk and start acting different.”
AllHipHop.com: Are you a regular on the Hollywood scene?Coolio: I don’t have celebrity friends. I don’t hang out with them because they are too wishy washy – rappers included. I don’t know what motherf**kers sexual preferences are. I don’t want to get caught up in nothing. I see some of them getting drunk and start acting different. I ain’t going to say any names but y’all know who the f**k you are. Even at the height of my career I never hung out with celebrity friends. The only ones that I do kick it with are Treach [Naughty By Nature] and Snoop Dogg. I saw Angie Stone at the airport one day and [she] told me, “Take my number. We need to do something together one day.” I took her number and she asked me to call her next month. I called her and left her a message recalling what she told me at the airport. I called her like 10 times and she never called back. I saw her recently and I was like, “I didn’t know you are like that baby. I didn’t know that you were a phony. You were the one that asked me to call you in the first place. I called you like 10 times and you never returned my calls. It’s cool though because you never have to worry about me calling you anymore.” I can’t have no feature records anyway. That’s never been my thing. I do things by myself. Dudes nowadays can’t sell a record unless they have five n***as on it. I do my own s**t. AllHipHop.com: You have a new album coming out called Steal Hear. What’s the word on it?Coolio: It should be out by September or October. My first single comes out July 29 with my son who is 18. The song is called “If I Was Your Boyfriend.” My second single is going to be “Gangsta Walk” with Snoop Dogg. I have another one called “Change” that I shot a video to already out in Venice, Italy – all on the water and everything. I also have a new book deal. I am going to do a series of cook books – about four or five of them. I received a substantial amount of money upfront for that. I also have a new reality TV show coming out. AllHipHop.com: A lot of reality shows plan out their scenes. Is that the case with yours?Coolio: I’ve got so much going on in my life that you don’t have to stage anything. It’s me and my kids. The premise of the show is that I’ve been on the road for the last 15 plus years and I haven’t really been around to raise my children. They are damn near grown now but I have one last chance to have an influence on their life. I’ve got a good relationship with my kids. We get along really good. The only thing about my kids is that they are f**kin’ lazy bro! They are lazy and spoiled homie. I swear to God that my daughter asks me for money every two days. 40 dollars, 60 dollars, 80 dollars – they be rollin’ thru my pockets everyday cuz! AllHipHop.com: On camera, do you get on their case a lot?Coolio: Oh I keep it real. I cuss, get physical, talk about putting their a**es out. It ain’t no Run’s House or Father Hood. It’s my way or the motherf**kin’ doorway. AllHipHop.com: When is this show coming out?Coolio: In October. You can see a preview of the first episode at Oxygen.com. My homie Jarez and I made spaghetti one night and the sauce came out wrong because he didn’t bring the right stuff, so my kids started clowning me for it. I got mad and said, “Whatever. I still bought this food and y’all ate it, so I expect for this kitchen to be clean before y’all go to bed.” They went to bed without cleaning the kitchen and left the next day to go to school. I took the spaghetti and poured that sh*t all in their beds and put dishes all over the house. I wouldn’t let nobody clean it up. I told them, “If y’all motherf**kers want to live like pigs, then we will live like pigs.” I dumped the trash out on the floor and I let it sit like that for a while, then I let them clean it up. I’m not playing. I believe in alternative parenting. I don’t believe in timeouts, however I don’t necessarily believe in hitting my kids either. But I will put some dishes in your bed! My daughter didn’t do the dishes so I put the dirty dishes at the bottom part of her bed. When she went to bed that night she got spaghetti juice and grease all over her feet. She yelled, “Daddy! Why did you do that?” I said, “I told your punk a** to clean up the kitchen!” Me and my son be going at it. On one of the shows we get into it. I took away his money and all that. I told the people doing the show that I am a real cat and to keep the cameras rolling because you never know what’s going to happen. The show isn’t all bad though. I do show alternative parenting and you can tell that we all love each other. The show is fun. My daughter went on her first date, and I went along too [laughs]. She also got her first car and wrecked it within a week. AllHipHop.com: You are also doing a cooking show called Cooking With Coolio right?Coolio: Yeah and I can get down. No disrespect but I can cook better than a lot of people’s mothers. I can make a stuffed avocado that you will eat like candy. AllHipHop.com: I know that you’ve heard some negative comments about your cooking show. How do you feel about people saying that its corny? Coolio: There’s more good than bad comments. If there are a hundred comments, 75 will be good and 25 will be bad. There will always be a hater out there. [Coolio raps] If it wasn’t for the haters there probably wouldn’t be no lovers – and there wouldn’t be no mothers – just a bunch of motherf**kers. AllHipHop.com: What qualifies you to be a cooking show chef?Coolio: I’m entertaining, I’m funny and my cooking skills are immaculate. I know all of the rules. My food is fresh, healthy and sanitary. I don’t use butter. With most things I use olive oil, peanut oil or sunflower oil.
“Listen, they tried to get me to do some Flavor Flav type of thing called, The Cool of Love. They tried to get me do that and I was like, ‘Nah. I’ve got kids.’ I don’t need no help looking for love or getting b**ches. I don’t want love – I just want p***y [laughs].”
AllHipHop.com: How would you fare on the Hell’s Kitchen cooking show?Coolio: I’d do ok but I would probably catch an assault case. I wish a motherf**ker would talk to me like that because I would elbow that n***a in his f***in neck. I would tell that chef, “Who are you talking to like that?” Then I should smash a plate over his head, whoop his a** and go in his pocket [laughs]. Listen, they tried to get me to do some Flavor Flav type of thing called, The Cool of Love. They tried to get me do that and I was like, “Nah. I’ve got kids.” I don’t need no help looking for love or getting b**ches. I don’t want love – I just want p***y [laughs]. They also tried to get me to do The Surreal Life. The last time The Surreal Life people called me I told them, “I told you I’m not doing the show. Call my house one more time and you’ll need to watch yourself when I see you.” Then they tried to get me on the “I’m a Celebrity, get me out of here” show. I’m like, “Stop calling me. I’m not doing none of that s**t.” I waited it out and now I’ve got my own s**t. Also a couple of these indie music labels tried to sign me and I turned them down. I’m doing my own s**t. It’s ok to try something and fail, and then try again. If I fail, I want to fail by my own. I don’t want to fail by putting my s**t in someone else’s hands and they f**k it up. AllHipHop.com: As a Hip-Hop veteran, what do you feel about today’s rap game?Coolio: I think that n****s slack. They go in to the studio and think that everything they hear is dope. Do you know how many songs that I’ve deleted? I disagree with the thinking that just because someone is making money, that their music is ok. Or just because it’s selling that it’s ok. I disagree with that. If your s**t is wack, then it’s wack. I do shows with a lot of young cats and they always ask me to go last. Its hard to go after me boy. I rap live. I don’t lip synch or rap over words on the tracks. I entertain the crowd. I’ve got crowd control and enough hits for them to know. For a long time I was bitter because I felt that people weren’t giving me respect. I am so underrated and slept on. Motherf**kers always judge me off of “Fantastic Voyage” and “1, 2, 3, 4.” What about my “Ghetto Highlights” or “They Don’t Know Me” songs? Live on stage, I am top 10 in Hip-Hop history. There aren’t too many out there that can go after me. Look at the B.E.T. award show that was just on. There was this one performance where motherf**kers came out and rapped over their words. Then two veterans came out and ripped it live – Big Boi and Ludacris – they ripped that s**t! Everybody else on that song rapped over their words. How the f**k are you going to be a singer and you can’t sing?
“I am going to be the first rapper to put an album out at 50 years old and go platinum… These young motherf**kers can say what they want but they don’t respect the game. If it’s a young man’s game then why are you disrespecting my b**ch like that? Hip-Hop is my girl n***a.”
AllHipHop.com: You being in your 40’s, how do you feel when you hear people say that Hip-Hop is just a young man’s game?Coolio: To people who say that, I would tell them to suck my d**k but I am heterosexual. So they can suck somebody else’s d**k. You know, I don’t care. I am going to be the first rapper to put an album out at 50 years old and go platinum. I’m 44 now so I have six years to go. Then I will retire after I have proven my point. I don’t have anything to prove, but then again I do. I love this Hip-Hop s**t. It saved my life and I respect it. These young motherf**kers can say what they want but they don’t respect the game. If it’s a young man’s game then why are you disrespecting my b**ch like that? Hip-Hop is my girl n***a. How come in rock, the Rolling Stones can be 100 years old and still tour? Grandmaster Caz said the same thing. He was like, “What the f**k else do you want me to do? I’ve been doing this for 30 years. What do you want me to do? Go work at K-Mart?” Music is my heart. All of these people that say s**t, they write it on the Internet with their anonymous names. Not one person has come up to my face and said any of that s**t. And I am not going to fight because I’ll just say something about your mama [laughs]. Your mama with her fat a** neck, that’s why your daddy left because your mama has a wooden tittie and he got tired of getting splinters on his lip [laughs]. I’m a wordsmith. I can fight with words but I can also fight physically, but it has to be self defense. [Note: After going to court on July 1st, Coolio called to inform us that he was charged a $10 processing fee and his charges were dismissed. After showing a valid California drivers license to the court, the judge was confused as to why the rapper had to appear in the first place. TMZ was not present.]
