Coolio Auctioning Off Music Royalty Rights to Kick Off Cooking Career

Do we hear $140,000? That's the starting bid for royalty rights to 123 Coolio songs, including "Gangta's Paradise" and "Fantastic Voyage"

What do you get the Coolio fan who has everything? More Coolio music of course.

But not in the form of a CD, rather the actual royalty rights to the rapper's entire catalogue. The Royalty Exchange said Thursday that it is auctioning off the full song portfolio of the five-time Grammy winner, including his chart-topping hit, "Gangsta's Paradise" from the film "Dangerous Minds."

The auction will begin at noon ET on Aug. 28, ending at 2 p.m. ET the following day. Let the bidding begin at $140,000.

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Coolio is selling the catalogue to help kick off his second career — cooking.

Following an appearance on Food Network's "Celebrity Chefs," the rapper became a New York Times bestselling-author with 2009's "Cookin' with Coolio." The entrepreneur plans to invest the funds from the song catalog sale to expand his cookbook series and his online cooking show of the same name.

The catalog consists of 123 songs from eight different albums, including other hits such as "1, 2, 3, 4 (Sumpin’ New)," "Too Hot," "C U When U Get There," and "Fantastic Voyage" (which reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1994).

"The Coolio song catalog auction is an exciting and rare opportunity for anyone looking for an alternative investment in music publishing and songwriter royalties," said Sean Peace, CEO of The Royalty Exchange. "We are thrilled to be able to offer royalties attached to such an iconic artist, and to assist interested parties in the research, registration and bidding process."

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