Mayor Coolio?

Coolio, the 34-year-old rapper, has extended his social outreach beyond music through a charitable foundation, “Heritage Begins Within.” When advising kids, Coolio draws from his own experiences: a Compton childhood, a conquered crack habit, jail time. He plans to narrate instructional rap videos on Latino and African American heritage, and will provide further inspiration Tuesday evening on KCAL’s “Pictionary,” where he attained the game show’s second-highest recorded score.

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Q: When did your activism take root?

A: I started doing free speaking engagements at schools all over the country. I talk about some of the pitfalls of life, about how you can possibly make things better, about some of the things I’ve been through. Maybe they’re in a similar situation.

Q: Did celebrities visit when you were a student in Compton?

A: A couple of people, like Thelma, the lady from “Good Times,” and Bootsy [Collins, bassist for George Clinton’s P-Funk All-Stars]. But they didn’t speak. They were just hanging out, flossing, basically. Like, you know, “Look at me.”

Q: Describe some of your L.A. outreach.

A: I sponsored a kids’ football team; I bought them sweat shirts and jackets. But this year, I’m getting with Nike or Adidas: uniforms from head to toe, because a lot of kids want to play sports but they can’t afford to.

Q: You’ve appeared on 92.3 The Beat’s public affairs show to support the Bus Riders Union.

A: It seems to me--come on, man, how much sense does it make to have trains that go underground in California? The buses were doing OK; they should have added more. But now they’re saying, “We have a pollution problem.” We still have a brown cloud hanging over our city.

Q: Any political ambitions?

A: I’m going to run for mayor of Compton in 10 years. If I became a politician, I’d probably get killed, because I wouldn’t take any bribes, I wouldn’t compromise my integrity and I wouldn’t cheat.