Coolio's 1995 song, "Gangsta's Paradise," became a rap anthem, and, although his star later dimmed, it never really went out during his lifetime. Here are some things you may not know about the late rap superstar.
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00:00Julio's 1995 song, Gangsta's Paradise, became a rap anthem, and although his star later
00:05dimmed, it never really went out during his lifetime. Here's some things you may not know
00:09about the late rap superstar.
00:12Artis Ivy has been known as Julio for decades. The name began as something of an insult,
00:16but Ivy liked it and decided to use it. The origins of Julio depend on whom you ask, but
00:20all the stories share the same general structure. In one version, Ivy got the name in high school
00:24when he was performing a Julio Iglesias song in a competition, and his friends nicknamed
00:29him Julio Iglesias. In another version of the story, Ivy was listening to a song by
00:32Jose Feliciano, and his friends, mocking him, gave him the nickname Julio Iglesias. Regardless
00:38of how he got there, Ivy chose not to take the insults to heart and instead ran with
00:42them, using the nickname as part of his rap persona.
00:45Even though young artist Ivy had some involvement with gangs and criminal activities as a teen,
00:49that wasn't the case at first after moving to Compton at eight years old with his mother
00:53and sister. At his new home, the artist, one day to be known as Julio, spent most of his
00:57time engrossed in the world of children's fiction. In an interview with Rolling Stone,
01:01he said,
01:02"...I lived in that library, man. I read every kid's book they had in there. I even read
01:05Judy Blume."
01:06Julio was very close with his mother, so when not at the library, she taught him how to
01:10play just about every board and card game that existed. Playing games wasn't just fun
01:14for the two, they also devised a way to turn their impressive skills into a money-making
01:17operation.
01:18"...My mother embarrassed me so much as a child, dude, that I was unembarrassable."
01:23Speaking with The Independent, Julio revealed,
01:26"...When I was 10 years old, she'd invite people over to play dominoes and she was hustling
01:29them. She would let them win and then she'd say, you sorry mother f-----, you come in
01:32here and me and my 10-year-old son will whip your a----. She bet them $50, and I'd come
01:37in and we'd kick they a----, man."
01:39Julio's most popular song, Gangsta's Paradise, has the word gangster right in there in the
01:43title, and Julio did grow up on the rough streets of Compton, where poverty, hopelessness,
01:47despair, and gang violence were part of daily life. But was Julio ever a gangster? Well,
01:53yes and no.
01:54When he was a pre-teen, artist Ivy started getting into trouble and wound up with the
01:57Baby Crips, a sort of minor-league version of the real thing. But he didn't fit in well
02:01with that crowd and was never formally inducted into the violent L.A. Street Gang.
02:05However, despite not being in a gang, Julio did manage to run afoul of the law. As a teen,
02:10he was busted for bringing a weapon to school and cashing a stolen money order. And as an
02:14adult, Ivy wound up on the wrong side of the law more than once. In 1998, Julio was busted
02:18as an accessory to robbery. And in 2016, he and his crew were busted for having a loaded
02:23firearm inside a bag at Los Angeles International Airport.
02:26When Julio was in his 20s, he was at the lowest point of his life. The young man's dependency
02:31on crack cocaine wasn't just detrimental to his health, it infuriated his loved ones,
02:36particularly his brother Spoon. In an interview with Radar Online, Julio explained the extremely
02:41tense time, saying,
02:42"...I was down to 100 pounds. I was a skeleton, and Spoon pointed a .38 caliber at my head
02:47and told me if I didn't promise to clean up, he would kill me."
02:50To overcome his addiction, the future rapper moved to San Jose to live with his father,
02:53where he became a volunteer firefighter in a program for drug addicts. The regimented
02:57structure was exactly what he needed.
02:59Even though Julio stated that the 18 months he spent in a brigade of the California Department
03:03of Forestry was the most difficult job he ever had, it was a life-altering experience
03:07that saved him. Not only did he kick his harmful habit, but his Christian faith became stronger
03:11and helped him through the process of getting clean.
03:14For most musicians, being spoofed by Weird Al Yankovic is a badge of honor. For example,
03:19Houston rapper Chameleon Air, whose writing Dirty became White and Nerdy, told Wired that
03:23the spoof meant he'd made it, and called it an honor. However, when Weird Al turned Gangsta's
03:27Paradise into Amish Paradise, Julio wasn't feeling it.
03:31Yankovic always makes it a point to get the artist's permission before writing a parody,
03:34not because he's legally required to do so, but because he likes to maintain good relationships
03:38with his colleagues. In the case of Gangsta's Paradise, Yankovic got permission for the
03:42spoof from Julio's record label, but apparently, Julio himself wasn't behind that authorization.
03:46In fact, he was quite salty about his serious look at real problems being turned into a
03:50comedy bit, and publicly called out Weird Al for spoofing him without permission. However,
03:54after a few decades, Julio realized he was being a giant baby about it. According to
03:58Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Julio said,
04:00"...I've since apologized to Weird Al. Again, that was so stupid. That was a stupid thing
04:05for me to do. That was one of the dumbest things I did in my career."
04:09By 2008, Julio Starr had dimmed quite a bit. Though far from broke, he wasn't the multi-millionaire
04:14he'd been in his heyday, having lost quite a bit of money to divorce and drug addiction,
04:17so he turned to reality TV to bring in some cash. The show was to focus on Julio's relationship
04:22with his children, who at the time ranged in age from pre-teen to early 20s. Despite
04:26having grown up poor and surrounded by gangs, Julio tried to manage his own children a bit
04:30better. According to his daughter Brandy, who was 19 at the time, it usually didn't
04:34work.
04:35"...He's tried to ground me and Artesia by being like, you can't go out for the weekend.
04:39But he'd give us money and let us go anyway. He threatens us, but only with money."
04:42That's not to say that his children got off scot-free for their shenanigans. For example,
04:46when his daughters failed to clean the kitchen after dinner, Julio punished them by dropping
04:50pots of spaghetti on their beds.
04:52Julio's fame increased dramatically after the release of Gangsta's Paradise, and his
04:56new celebrity status brought experiences he never would have considered in his earlier
05:00life, most notably playing golf. Speaking to The Independent, Julio admitted that he
05:04initially judged the sport partially without knowing much about it. He said,
05:07"...I used to think it was a white man's sport. I used to say, f---- that s----, until I played
05:11it one time in a celebrity tournament, and I've been going once a week ever since. I
05:15just love it. It's so relaxing, man."
05:17The rapper discovered he had a knack for the sport even before he participated in the tournament.
05:21In order to get some familiarity with it beforehand, Julio went to the driving range twice, and
05:25his performance was surprisingly much better than what he expected.
05:28"...I just try to represent for my neighborhood. I don't want to be out here looking like no
05:33bugs, you know what I'm saying?"
05:36From then on, his passion for golf only grew, but he remained humble about his abilities
05:40and acknowledged he would probably never reach pro level.
05:43In the 90s, Julio's music paved the way for him to branch out from standard gangster rap.
05:47Two young comedians, Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell, were particularly grateful for the
05:51musician's contribution to their new show, Kenan & Kel. Julio not only wrote the theme
05:56song for the kids' comedy, but appeared in the video as well. Mitchell was so pleased
05:59with the results that he even used the song before his stand-up act.
06:03"...Yeah, let me get a good burger, extra pickles, and…"
06:06"...Whoa! Julio! You're Julio! You know that?"
06:11Thompson expressed his gratitude to the rapper via Entertainment Weekly, saying,
06:14"...Shout out to Julio. It was the best. He had been on All That before at that point,
06:19so we felt like we knew him. That's how you are when you're young. Oh yeah, Julio's my
06:22best friend."
06:23"...Me, I went to your concert!"
06:25"...Oh, there was lots of people, man, you know what I'm saying?"
06:27"...No, I was in row X, seat 37."
06:31After touring with the rap group Insane Clown Posse, Julio gained a lot of respect not just
06:35for the duo, but also for their infamous fans, known as Juggalos. Julio got a tattoo to honor
06:40them, but he faced criticism when he showed it off to the world because he spelled Juggalos
06:44with only one G, a fact pointed out by TMZ. Julio was given the opportunity to set the
06:49record straight in an interview with Vice. When asked if it truly was a mistake, he replied,
06:53"...I took the G out of Juggalo because there's only one motherf-----G, and that's me. I didn't
06:57need two Gs to describe my Juggalo."
07:00The rapper then called out TMZ for the story and accused them of trying to make a fool
07:03out of him. He also dished out his own criticism, stating that it was not right for the outlet
07:07to place judgment on people or cultures they don't understand.
07:11Growing up in poverty in a rough neighborhood in L.A., artist Ivy didn't have access to
07:15quality food, a situation that would now be referred to as a food desert. Nevertheless,
07:20Ivy did the best he could with what he was given, and by the age of 10, he was creating
07:23meals in his famous kitchen. By 2018, with his rap career in the rearview mirror, Julio
07:28reinvented himself as a chef.
07:30"...If it look good, it smell good, and it taste good, then what is it? Feels good."
07:38Specifically, he made a second career out of teaching his readers and viewers how to
07:41do what he did as a young boy — make delicious and healthy meals with inexpensive ingredients.
07:46His book Cooking with Julio, Five Star Meals at a One Star Price, contains chapters with
07:51titles like How to Become a Kitchen Pimp and Pasta Like a Rasta. Plus, his recipes include
07:55confusions that you'll not likely find in a Michelin-starred restaurant, such as Blasian,
08:00Black Asian, or Gattalian, Ghetto Italian.
08:03"...That's right, I said soul rolls, not egg rolls, yeah."
08:10In addition to his book, Julio took his culinary career to the small screen, appearing on the
08:14Food Network, as well as in a web series, Cooking with Julio.
08:18Out of all of Julio's side projects, perhaps the funniest were his cameo appearances on
08:22the animated series Futurama, as the character Kwonzabot. Beginning in 2001, he appeared
08:27in the Season 4 episode, A Tale of Two Santas, and then in Season 7's A Futurama Holiday
08:32Spectacular.
08:33"...Hanukkah zombies having a luau at the B'nai B'rith. You coming?"
08:37When Kwonzabot appeared in the Futurama film Bender's Big Score, it could have been for
08:41the last time, as the show was canceled in 2013. However, the rapper was able to reprise
08:46his role one last time in the revival of the show on Hulu, with 20 new episodes available
08:50for streaming in 2023. Shortly after he finished recording for the role, Julio tragically passed
08:55away from an accidental overdose of fentanyl. Executive producer David Cohen told TMZ,
09:00"...Julio was one of my favorite guests. He was always totally upbeat and genuinely enjoyed
09:05coming in to record as his character Kwonzabot."
09:08During his impressive career, Julio gained more fame and fortune than most, but he didn't
09:12succeed without facing personal struggles. One of his greatest obstacles was the severe
09:16asthma he was plagued with his entire life. When talking with USA Today, the rapper explained
09:21the severity of his condition, saying,
09:22"...I had a few episodes with asthma where I was in serious trouble and could have died.
09:26I still played sports, but I would just have attacks and have to be hospitalized every
09:30now and then."
09:31Julio did whatever he could to help others who suffered from the condition, working to
09:34increase awareness of treatments for children in particular. One major way he was able to
09:38offer support was by becoming a spokesman for the Asthma and Allergies Foundation.
09:43Not only did the rapper have attacks that were so bad he passed out, but his asthma
09:46flared up at the worst moments during performances. Most depressing of all is the claim by TMZ
09:51that sources close to Julio said that, along with the drugs in his system, asthma may have
09:55contributed to his untimely death.
09:57If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Visit
10:02the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's
10:06National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP.
10:13For more information visit www.samhsa.gov