Late Rapper Coolio Once Kicked His Crack Cocaine Addiction By Becoming A California Fireman

Following the sudden death of the legendary rapper Coolio this week, RadarOnline.com can report that the late hip hop artist once kicked his crack cocaine habit by becoming a fireman.

Wild-haired rapper Coolio swapped crack cocaine for a fireman’s suit and kicked his life-threatening drug habit. Before his death, the chart-topper once revealed how he broke free of L.A. gang life and started a career in rap music after battling blazes with a small-town fire brigade for 18 months.

“It was the hardest work I ever did,” the rapper, whose real name is Artis Ivey, told RadarOnline.com in 1996. “It helped me get my mind back together.”

Coolio joined the firefighters in San Jose, California, after his brother, Spoon, threatened to kill him if he didn’t kick his crack habit.

“I was down to 100 lbs.,” said Coolio, whose smash hit Gangsta’s Paradise helped the rapper gain mainstream success after it was on the soundtrack for Michelle Pfeiffer’s blockbuster movie, Dangerous Minds. “I was a skeleton and Spoon pointed a .38 caliber at my head and told me if I didn’t promise to clean up, he would kill me.”

So, Coolio ultimately joined a firefighting program for drug addicts.

“It was just what I needed,” he said. “Routine, order, discipline and a strong physical regimen to toughen me up.”

Coolio, who passed away on Wednesday at 59 years old after suffering cardiac arrest, once credited his decision to get out of the gangs in the tough Compton area of L.A. as the only reason he kept himself alive for so long.

Coolio also revealed to RadarOnline.com that he joined an L.A. gang for protection because he was bullied at school. He said he witnessed his first murder in the bathroom at school, and he witnessed his second murder when he was only 16 and watched as his gang beat an outsider to death with a hammer.

“I watched them beat him to death, then I threw up,” he told us. “That’s when I stopped rolling with the gang.”