It became an anthem and is rightly considered perhaps the greatest hip hop track ever made for a film. The cinematic qualities of Coolio's visceral lyrics and ...
‘Gangsta’s Paradise’ wanted to be born; it wanted to come to life, and it chose me as the vessel.” The single was the first explicitly rap song to sell over a million copies. It flew to number one on both sides of the Atlantic and confirmed that Coolio’s career was about to skyrocket. As well as being a classic hip hop anthem, the film the song was attached to was also a huge hit. The cinematic qualities of Coolio’s visceral lyrics and the soulful refrain of L.V. For a while, in the mid-90s, it was entirely impossible to walk down any street without hearing this song blasting out of a stereo, no matter if you were in Los Angeles or Lyme Regis, this song was blaring out of your nearest speakers.
In 1995, Coolio combined street-tough lyrics with a pop sensibility - and rap would never be the same.
"She brought her son down to the shoot with her and she was cool. His only stipulation was that I had to take the curse words out." "For people that really like Gangsta's Paradise, that's all they really want to hear." And the rapper bristled when his song was lumped in with the so-called "gangster rap" scene. "In many ways, Gangsta's Paradise signalled the end of gangsta, or 'reality' rap as a cult. "I thought it was going to be a hood record," he told The Voice in 2017. "Then I can take them to a deeper level. "She was real nice," Coolio told Kiss FM's Rap show at the time. He was "raised by the street", immersed a life of crime and retribution. That whole choir that you hear was actually me - I did all the parts from soprano down to tenor to the bass." Coolio was 30 at the time the song was written, but the narrator is 23 and he doesn't know if he'll live to see 24. He earned the unwelcome nickname "Un-Coolio".