Coolio died, as I’m sure you’ve all heard by now. I mentioned to a friend who’s also stuck in the ’90s that it seems like it’s been a bad run of rappers from our high school days passing away, mostly last year, and they were surprised by some of the names I threw out. So, partially as a PSA and partially to re-memorialize them, here are five rappers who we lost in the last couple years.

Keep in mind these aren’t the only rappers who have died. In 2022 we’ve lost far too many young musicians to gun violence; PnB Rock, Snooty Wild, Trouble, Wavy Navy Pooh and others. That’s a column for another day. Today, our focus is on Coolio, his contemporaries, and those who paved the way for him.

Coolio — “1-2-3-4 (Sumpin’ New)”

Obviously this is where we’re starting.

Coolio doesn’t get the respect he deserves for the breadth of his musical and cultural output. His music spanned from heavy and autobiographical like “Gangsta’s Paradise” to dance-focused tracks like this one or “Fantastic Voyage.” Those of you who, like me, are from the ’90s and have taste will remember him from the theme song to “Kenan and Kel,” which not only featured the future longest-tenured SNL cast member but more importantly birthed “Good Burger.”

He was also an actor, featured in projects ranging from the cringey (the embarrassingly named 187 and the embarrassing Casper Van Dien vehicle “Dracula 3000”) to the amazing (Kwanzaabot in “Futurama,” a role he reprised shortly before his death). He was also a contestant in the celebrity editions of a surprising number of Food Network competition shows in recent years.

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Digital Underground — “The Humpty Dance”

Hopefully you remember this one, but even if so, I’m memorializing him again because he’s one of my favorites. Shock G, the genius behind Digital Underground, died in April of 2021.

You can read about it detail in the obituary and column I wrote, but I consider him an absolute genius for having multiple distinct rap styles as his different characters. Shock G sounds different than Humpty sounds different than MC Blowfish, and in a world where most rappers struggle to find one good style, the fact that he had several is amazing.

Oh, and he also rapped on Tupac’s breakthrough single, “I Get Around,” as well as producing several of his tracks. Dude was Tupac Shakur’s mentor.

Blackalicious — “Alphabet Aerobics”

That you know this song from Daniel Radcliffe is a travesty.

Gift of Gab, rapper from Blackalicious, died in June of 2021. He founded the group with DJ Chief Xcel up in Davis in 1992. Their major label debut didn’t come until 2002 but featured everyone from Zach de la Rocha to freaking Gil Scott-Heron. He went on to release four more albums as Blackalicious (with a fifth posthumous album in the works) and four solo albums (one posthumous).

Despite the founding of the band occurring in Davis and its early days in Sacramento, Gift of Gab was a mainstay of the Bay Area hip-hop scene. That means, along with Shock G, the Bay had an especially bad year in 2021.

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Zion I — “Coastin’ (feat. K. Flay)”

This is kinda a weird one.

Oakland rapper Zumbi of Zion I died in August of 2021. He caught COVID-19 while on tour and, since he had asthma, he was careful and came home to recover. Seemingly better, it was a surprise to fans and family when he was rushed to Alta Bates in Berkeley with an asthma attack, and even more of a surprise when he was declared dead a few hours later. Weirder still? His death was under investigation by Berkeley police.

According to police reports and 911 records, police received numerous calls about a patient attacking security guards and nurses, who had him pinned down when police arrived. They were handcuffing him when they decided he needed immediate medical attention, and he died shortly thereafter.

Obviously, especially when the person at the center is a Black man and the police get involved, that’s a suspicious sequence of events. And as far as I can tell from published reports, there aren’t any new developments, through Zumbi’s family hired an attorney to help get to the bottom of it.

UPDATE: After this column was written Nate Gartrell of the Bay Area News group reported that the coroner’s report ruled Zumbi’s death as a homicide. While the report says he died of “physiologic stress of altercation and restraint during a psychotic episode” the Berkeley PD and Alameda County DA say no charges will be filed against those responsible, while Zumbi’s family continue to advocate for accountability and criminal charges.

DMX — “Party Up (Up In Here)”

It’s time to leave the Bay again. I had two more rappers I wanted to include but I try to limit this to five, so go read my obituary for Biz Markie, who absolutely deserves your attention and respect and love, and DMX can have the fifth entry.

DMX died in April of, yes, 2021. You know who DMX is. He had one of the most unique styles in hip-hop, channeling a growling rage that many attempt but usually just makes people sound foolish. He also didn’t have it easy in life, turning to robbery to help get out of poverty, becoming addicted to crack, and getting arrested for stealing a dog at 14. He was arrested numerous times throughout his life, mostly for alcohol, drugs, animal cruelty and later failure to pay child support and tax fraud.

He did make attempts to turn his life around, though. After falling away from religion after being raised a Jehovah’s Witness, he became a pastor in 2009 and was preaching sermons as recently as 2016. But sadly that didn’t stick; his death was from a cocaine overdose.

Follow publisher Daniel J. Willis and tweet column ideas to him at Twitter.com/BayAreaData.