Hopping aboard a "Fantastic Voyage" for AIDS patients, West Coast rapper Coolio announced Wednesday that he will perform at the 10th annual AIDS Dance-A-Thon this Saturday night. |

The Grammy Award-winning artist has volunteered to perform for the thousands of dancers participating in this year's fund-raising event at Universal Studios Hollywood. Each dancer must raise at least $100 in pledges to join the techno, disco and house music dance party, which raised more than $750,000 last year.

Coolio will join R&B artists Total, disco diva Robin S. and rockers Eboni Foster onstage at the event. These notables follow in the footsteps of celebrities such as Michael Stipe, Natalie Merchant, Madonna and the Village People, all of whom have participated in past years' events.

Money raised during the five-hour affair will benefit AIDS Project Los Angeles, a non-profit organization that provides services to HIV/AIDS patients, as well as treatment and prevention education.

Following his performance at Dance-a-Thon, Coolio will likely keep busy with work on a new album due out in late 1998 or early 1999. However, the "Gangsta's Paradise" rapper may take a break from recording to visit Germany, where prosecutors in Stuttgart filed assault charges against him last week. Coolio was charged with hitting a German store manager in the stomach last year when she reportedly tried to stop him and his friends from leaving her boutique with stolen merchandise. He was detained and posted bail following the incident. (Anni Layne)