coolio 12 hours

Toronto woman sings 'Gangsta's Paradise' for 12 hours straight in Coolio tribute

Minute after minute, hour after hour, an innovative young artist from Toronto stayed live on camera — with no breaks — singing Coolio's iconic 1995 hit track "Gangsta's Paradise," for 12 hours straight.

Twenty-one-year-old Tiana, who can be found on TikTok and YouTube under the handle Untainted Afro, is a freaking phenom. Let's just get that out of the way.

In addition to performing live songs and conducting social experiments on the streets of Toronto, she dances, raps, sings, cooks, dishes out hair advice and — from time to time — hosts marathon livestreams during which she performs one single song repeatedly for hours at a time.

She once rapped Eminem's Lose Yourself for almost 12 hours straight. She lasted another 12 hours singing Doja Cat's Get into It (Yuh), 12 hours doing Kodak Black's Super Gremlin, and 10 hours each on Em's Rap God and Godzilla.

She also flossed for three consecutive hours live on YouTube earlier this year, which is no easy feat.

In her latest and most-viral livestreaming stunt to date, Tiana took up the mantle of the recently-deceased Coolio, performing his highest-ever charting single for 12 hours on TikTok.

Needless to say, she got some attention, both on account of the stream's extreme length and Coolio's recent death at the age of 59.

A TikTok post promoting the stream, in which Tiana wears her hair in similar style to the Grammy Award-winning rapper's trademark braids, has been viewed more than eight million times since going live on Friday.

An archived version of the actual stream has yet to be posted to Tiana's profiles, but a blogTO reader and fan of the artist's says it had as many as 14,000 viewers at a time before it ended.

Clips abound on Twitter, however, where people shared footage from the stream with remarks of shock, awe, wonder and confusion.

"TikTok never fails, just came across a girl that's been singing gangsters paradise on repeat for 12 hours live in her bedroom as a tribute to Coolio," wrote one Twitter user.

"TikTok lives are so interesting," joked another. "I'm on a live and all that’s happening is this person is singing Gangsta's Paradise for 12 hours straight."

Coolio, born Artis Leon Ivey Jr. in Monessen, Pennsylvania, died at the age of 59 on Wednesday, Sept. 28 in Los Angeles.

Lead photo by

untaintedafro


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