This Lil’ Diva Grew Up To Become An R&B Legend Who Has A Child With A ’90s Rap Legend

Posted On : April 14, 2021

ILOSM family, the adorable little girl in the above photo was a little diva the and later became a grown diva who can SANG! Matter of fact, she will sing circles around many of these new R B singers nowadays…on any day of the week. She’s now 50 years old and is still doing her thing in the music industry and beyond. Oh…and by the way, did we mention that she has an adult child with a very well-known rap legend? Think you guessed who she is correctly? Scroll down for the details on this songstress and her child’s father…

Who Is She?

She’s none other than Coko Clemons of SWV!

Coko Clemons of SWV

Here is some info that will probably surprise quite a few people. Coko was in a relationship and had a child with a rapper who was very popular in the 90’s. He is a member of a rap group and for a while, they dominated the airwaves with their hits…they even won a Grammy and sold millions of records. Their music is timeless and is classic to old school hip hop heads.

How the two of them managed to keep their past relationship and child out of the public’s eye back when both of them were in two of the hottest groups of the 90’s, is beyond us! See who Coko’s child calls ‘Dad’ below…

Digable Planets rapper, Ishmael (Remember Him?)

Tah-dah!!! The father of Coko Clemons’ son, Jazz, is none other than “Mr. Cool Like Cat,” Ishmael “Butterfly” Butler, of the legendary 90’s rap group, Digable Planets!

Ishmael of Digable Planets

You may not have known his name, but if you were bobbing your head to rap classics back in the day, you definitely know his group. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Digable Planets, they were one of the main groups to fuse a jazz sound with unique hip hop vocals and their hit, “Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)” sent them into another stratosphere in the 90’s. Here is the video for that song…

Below is a throwback pic of Coko’s and Ishmael’s son, Jazz, who is a splitting image of his Pops…coko and son

As far as Ishmael and Coko’s relationship, Coko admitted that they weren’t together for long, but they were in love. Their son was born in 1997 and here is what Coko revealed about them in a 2000 interview she did with Honey Magazine:

“People would ask us, ‘What do y’all talk about?’ because we’re really different,” says Coko of her ex. A shy laugh gets caught in her voice. “I watch TV, he doesn’t. I eat fried food and pork. He doesn’t. So some things were really weird, but he taught me a lot and he learned some things from me. But I think we were too different for it to really last.” Coko smiles as she talks of him, and though she initially claimed she was mad at Ishmael at the time of the interview, it’s clear the two are still good friends.

“He’s a good father,” she continues, “and he was special. We have a special bond, a special relationship.” Raising her eyebrows and lightening her tone, she adds, “He’s a good man. He’s going to make somebody a good husband.”

Ishmael wasn’t the only artist who Coko dated, she was also in a relationship with another popular 90’s entertainer who was also a member of a popular group, only this time he was an R&B cat, not a rapper.

Coko Also Dated A Shai Singer…

Garfield Bright of Shai

Coko and Garfield Bright of the 90’s group, Shai, were a couple back in the day too!

Remember Shai? They had EVERYBODY singing the lyrics to their 90’s love song: “And if I ever fall in love again. I will be sure that the lady is my freeing, and if I ever fall in love so true baby, I will be sure that the lady’s just like you-ooo-ooo.” Okay I couldn’t resist singing that line just now, but I digress.

About I Love Old School Music

We salute the incredible people and beautiful memories of that "old school". We’re not saying that every artist and every facet of the soul era was perfect, but the artists’ contributions to soul music and the old school memories of that particular time are PRICELESS.