14 DAY TRIAL // Rapper Coolio might have slipped a bit off radar as regards his music career, but one thing that will always get him the headlines is a certain penchant for legal trouble. Artis Leon Ivey, Jr. (real name) was arrested a couple of hours ago at LAX as a screening to get him to his Southwest Airlines plane revealed he had crack cocaine on his person, as TMZ reports.
According to the celebrity gossip website / paparazzi agency, the rapper was on his way to Tulsa, Okla., where he was scheduled to play a show at the Flytrap Music Hall, with co-headliners Tone Loc and Shock G of The Digital Underground. A simple screening revealed that he had a certain amount of the drug on his person, which prompted airport personnel to call reinforcements.
It is at this point, sources say, that Coolio became agitated and even “got physical with the screener at some point during the incident.” Police took him to headquarters, booked him and set bail at $10,000. The rapper posted bail almost immediately and was later released. No further details pertaining to the case have yet been made public, and an arraignment date is still pending as of now.
Just recently, Coolio made headlines again when he took part in the “Celebrity Big Brother” UK reality show. However, this time, it wasn’t as much for what he did that he made it into the papers, but for what he said, as he told one of his fellow “mates” that he believed computers came from aliens and that Hollywood films could actually predict the future – if one only knew how to look at them right.
“All this technology. You think it came from this planet? [expletive] I don’t think men are that smart. I think it came from somewhere else. Movies are made twenty years before they happen. Look at ‘Face Off’ with John Travolta. Nobody thought that [expletive] would happen, but it has. The movie ‘Independence Day’ – that’s gonna happen. Microbiotics, computer science, jet planes – they came from a different planet.” the 45-year-old rapper said while being a member of the Big Brother house.