US rapper Coolio, known for the iconic hit Gangsta's Paradise, has died at the age of 59.

Axar.az reports citing foreign media that his longtime manager Jarez Posey told US media the artist was found unresponsive on the bathroom floor of a friend's house in Los Angeles.

Coolio started making music in the 1980s, but he cemented his place in hip hop history when he recorded Gangsta's Paradise in 1995.

The exact cause of his death on Wednesday has not yet been revealed.

However Mr Posey told TMZ, which first reported the news, that paramedics believed he may have had a cardiac arrest.

Coolio, whose real name was Artis Leon Ivey Jr, won a Grammy for Gangsta's Paradise, which was part of the soundtrack for the movie Dangerous Minds starring Michelle Pfeiffer.