Rapper Coolio to turn Surfers into Gangsta’s Paradise
FROM Compton, California, to the Q Centre at Mermaid Waters – Grammy-winning US rapper Coolio is in town.
Coolio, 54, whose real name is Artis Leon Ivey Jr, will turn Surfers into Gangsta’s Paradise tonight when he brings his headline Australian tour to the Beergarden. A rapper, actor, chef and record producer best known for his 1990s albums It Takes a Thief, Gangsta’s Paradise and My Soul, Coolio arrived on the Coast yesterday and made a beeline for the butcher.
“I’m in the butcher shop (at the Q Centre) right now,” he said. “I was just checking to see if they had any oxtail at the butcher shop. I’m gonna make some oxtail soup with butter beans and a nice little slice of gravy over some rice.”
“Right now I’m at JamRoc getting me some chips and some Jamaican jerk.”
Coolio’s chart-topping hit Gangsta’s Paradise has remained a club staple in Australia since it came in at No. 3 on the 1995 Triple J Hottest 100 and continued to earn Coolio new, younger fans.
The star agrees the song’s success has been both a blessing and a curse.
“I can’t complain about the way it’s worked out because it made me a household name and it’s taken care of my family for many many years. (But) it’s almost like they don’t want to hear anything else form me.”
In addition to releasing eight studio albums, two compilations and 28 music videos, Coolio has acted in Retirement and several HBO films, made cameo appearances in Futurama AFTER spending eight years living on Gold Coast canals without seeing a shark, local man David Hornsby said he thought the stories were an urban myth.
But that was until 10pm Monday night when Mr Hornsby’s son, Jamie, hauled a 1.5m predator out of the water from his back yard at Burleigh Waters.
“I’ve always thought, is it an urban myth to keep people from drowning, because you never see anyone swimming in the canals,” Mr Hornsby said.
“But now we’ve seen a few in the past week.”
Mr Hornsby said the sightings included a shark swimming in a canal off Christine Ave at Burleigh Waters and seeing a fin while fishing from a kayak in the
same waterway. The keen fisherman said that after the sightings, he and his son decided to try their luck catching a bull shark in Lake Heron by using a piece of mullet.
Mr Hornsby said it took a few hours standing in the rain but 13-year-old Jamie managed to land a 1.5m shark and a 71cm trevally.
After taking photos of the catch, the pair released the shark in “perfect condition” to “fight another day”.
Scientists and anglers have suggested Gold Coast canals could be teeming with hundreds of sharks.
Last summer, Bond University biologist Dr Daryl McPhee said each of the city’s canals — part of the Gold Coast’s 400km network of waterways — was likely to get a visit from at least one shark during warmer months.
“In every canal there could be a shark swimming. I would estimate there are hundreds,” he said.
“These range from small to quite sizeable animals — a 1.5m shark is a good fish.’’ and Squidbillies and hosted Cooking with Coolio, a “ghetto funk” cooking web series.
Coolio has brought his saxophone player and guitarist with him on tour.
“It’s a really good live feel but it’s straight hip hop,” he said. “You gonna get all the classics and something new.”
Coolio plays the Surfers Paradise Beergarden tonight.