Coolio was a Grammy Award-winning rapper, producer and actor best known for his 1995 hit “Gangsta’s Paradise,” which topped the pop charts internationally and achieved multi-platinum status. Born Artis Leon Ivey Jr. in Los Angeles, California on August 1, 1963, Coolio began his professional rap career as a member of WC and the MAAD Circle, appearing on the group’s debut album Ain’t a Damn Thang Changed and their single “Dress Code” as well as Ice Cube’s posse cut “Color Blind” alongside WC in 1991.

Coolio released his debut major label solo single “County Line” in 1993 before releasing his 1994 debut album It Takes a Thief, which also featured his breakthrough hit single “Fantastic Voyage.” His second album, Gangsta’s Paradise, was released in 1995 and featured the Grammy Award-winning title track as well as the single “1, 2, 3, 4 (Sumpin' New).” His third album, 1997’s My Soul featured the single “C U When U Get There.” After releasing his first three albums on Tommy Boy Records, Coolio released his subsequent projects independently.

Coolio has appeared in several television and film projects, starred in his own reality show with Coolio’s Rules, and he had a career as a chef, releasing multiple cookbooks and hosting the web series Cookin' with Coolio.

On September 28, 2022, Coolio passed away in Los Angeles. Although the cause of death is unknown, it is suspected to be a cardiac arrest. He was 59 years old at the time of his death.

The eighth track on Soul on Ice, “Drama” is the only song on the album with a feature – fellow West Coast rapper Coolio, who was at the height of his popularity at the time. The song diverges from the album’s main themes and is relatively lighthearted subject wise, with Ras and Coolio sharing stories about how much game they have with women.

Ras Kass was signed to Coolio’s Crowbar Entertainment at the time.

6 Feet Deep’s twelfth track takes small samples from a number of earlier demo tracks to add substance to its hook, one that conveys a simple but ominous message: The Gravediggaz are coming.

Prince Paul would later explain how the unknown Mr. Sime would go on to produce the track for the album:

Oh yeah Sime, that was Poetic’s homeboy at the time. Poetic and his brother were doing The Brothers Grym when we reconnected. Sime was their producer, and he produced their demo. It was amazing; I thought he was an unknown amazing producer. Since Frukwan had a beat on the album, and RZA was participating and I wanted everybody to be involved, Mr. Sime came up with that beat and he played it for me. I was like “yo, it’s only fair to have y’all do a track on the album, put that one on there.” So that one was all conducted by Poetic, him and Mr. Sime got together, came with the beat, took the hook, told the other guys what it was and I just mixed it.

The eleventh track on 6 Feet Deep sports a heavy metal-esque instrumental to go along with the very metal music-like theme – head banging. With the Gravediggaz signature horrorcore style however, the term can certainly take on different meanings than the harmless concert head banging you’re used to…

In an interview, Prince Paul explained how the song concept actually derived from Wu-Tang member U-God’s famous opening verse to Wu-Tang Clan’s Da Mystery of Chessboxin':

That was a beat that I had that I originally recorded as a demo for the Cold Crush Four believe it or not haha. They never put it out and never used it and I still liked the beat so I played it for RZA and Poetic and they liked it. RZA had just been recording “Da Mystery Of Chessboxin’” with Wu-Tang and he came back and he’s like yo for some reason U-God kept on saying “run in to the wall, bang ya head”, so we should call this Bang Ya Head, it has that kinda vibe to it. RZA said it was stuck in his head to use that with this beat. I said “yeah whatever you wanna come up with I’m just glad you wanna use it.” RZA set it off, he came up with the hook, and he showed the guys how he heard the track.