Sad to hear about Coolio suddenly passing, he was only 59 and was still in demand for his varying talents. Although I’m not into Rap/Hip Hop music, I always loved him for being the voice of Futurama‘s Kwanzabot, a nice, non-violent counter to Robot Santa or Hanukkah Zombie who as you can see, hands out his book explaining the relatively new holiday…well, in our era, the Stupid Ages. I think Kwanzabot’s debut was when Bender had to cover for Robot Santa, then the movie Bender’s Big Score as helped the Planet Express crew fight back at the scammers and then his explanation of candles Kwanza uses. I loved the line saying, “The candles must be made of beeswax unless you’re White.”
The other cool TV cameo he had was as “himself” on Sabrina the Teenage Witch. It was the episode when Salem ran away from home and Sabrina went looking for him. She cast a spell on a Coolio poster to ask if he saw her cat pass through an alley. He did! Coolio gave a direction to follow. Sabrina then wanted to know if he could get her tickets to the sold-out show. Coolio said, sorry, try asking a billboard, they have more clout.
Lastly, everyone remembers his big hit “Gangsta’s Paradise” from the movie Dangerous Minds which samples from Stevie Wonder’s “Pastime Paradise.” It was then turned into a parody hit for Weird Al as “Amish Paradise.” There was a stink way back in 1996 over Al not getting Coolio’s permission as per Al’s custom. Technically, Al doesn’t have to as the Supreme Court has ruled that parodies are protected from pre-emptive silencing…for now. Al is only obligated to paying the ASCAP/BMI rights money to the song’s author and in the case of Rap’s usage of sampling, part of the money goes to Stevie Wonder for the melody. There was a lot of Coolio said v. Al said but given Al’s reputation, Coolio was mistaken or he was trying to pull Al into a rivalry as many Rappers have. Besides, Al and his people made sure Coolio got a check and didn’t try to pull some bullshit like Vanilla Ice tried with Queen and David Bowie.
Thanks for everything Coolio! I’m glad you were brought back one last time for the upcoming Hulu run of Futurama to voice your beloved Kwanzabot. I look forward to it and the tribute the crew will give you as we miss you already.