"Gangsta's Paradise" is a single by American rapper

Coolio Artis Leon Ivey Jr. (August 1, 1963 – September 28, 2022), known professionally as Coolio, was an American rapper. First rising to fame as a member of the gangsta rap group WC and the Maad Circle, Coolio achieved mainstream success as a solo ...

. Interpolating

Stevie Wonder Stevland Hardaway Morris ( Judkins; May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, who is credited as a pioneer and influence by musicians across a range of genres that include rhythm and blues, Pop musi ...

's 1976 song " Pastime Paradise", and featuring American singer L.V., the single was released on August 1, 1995. Certified Platinum in October, the song was included on Coolio's second album ''Gangsta's Paradise'' in November 1995. The song was the number one biggest-selling single of 1995 on U.S. ''Billboard''. In 2008, it was ranked number 38 on

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's 100 Greatest Songs of Hip Hop. '' NME'' listed the song at number 100 in their ranking of "100 Best Songs of the 1990s" in 2012. Coolio was awarded a

Grammy The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...

for Best Rap Solo Performance, two MTV Video Music Awards for

Best Rap Video The MTV Video Music Award for Best Rap Video was first given out in 1989, and it was one of the four original genre categories added at the 1989 MTV Video Music Awards. This award was last given out in 2006, as MTV did not bring it back in 2008 lik ...

and Best Video from a Film and a ''Billboard'' Music Award for the song/album. The song was voted as the best single of the year in '' The Village Voice'' Pazz & Jop critics' poll. The song has sold over five million copies in the United States, United Kingdom, and Germany.RIAA – Gold and Platinum Searchable Database
/ref> Coolio performed this song live at the 1995 ''Billboard'' Music Awards with L.V. and Wonder, and at the

38th Annual Grammy Awards The 38th Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 28, 1996, at Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles. The awards recognized accomplishments by musicians from the previous year. Alanis Morissette was the main recipient, being awarded four trophies, inc ...

with L.V.

Background and writing

The artists co-wrote the song with their producer Doug Rasheed, with

receiving writing credits for the sampling of his song " Pastime Paradise" from his 1976 album '' Songs in the Key of Life''. The song begins with a line from Psalm 23:4: "As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death", but then diverges with: "I take a look at my life and realize there's nothin' left." Adding to some of the religious overtones are choral vocals in the background. Coolio freestyled the first couple of lines, with the rest of the lyrics coming to him quickly in one sitting. He would later claim that the song ultimately came from a source outside himself, saying: "'Gangsta's Paradise' wanted to be born; it wanted to come to life, and it chose me as the vessel." Due to the sampling of Stevie Wonder's music, "Gangsta's Paradise" is one of the few Coolio tracks that did not contain any profanity, as Wonder did not appreciate his song being paired with profanity. Coolio said, "I had a few vulgarities...and he wasn't with that. So I changed it. Once he heard it, he thought it was incredible."

Critical reception

Gangsta's Paradise received widespread acclaim. Bill Lamb from About.com described the song as "riveting and atmospheric".

James Masterton James Masterton (born 2 September 1973) is a music writer and columnist, his work focusing on the UK Singles Chart having been an online fixture on various sites since the 1990s. Masterton is also a producer for talkSPORT, and has worked on air ...

for Dotmusic noted "the undoubted brilliance" of the track. David Browne from '' Entertainment Weekly'' said it "may be the bleakest tune ever to top the pop singles chart." He added, "With its ghostly choir and lyrics about a gun-toting 23-year-old who kneels in the streetlight wondering if he’ll live to see 24, it examines the abyss with journalistic coolness." Tom Ewing of ''

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'' declared it as "complete pop greatness". Mike Wood from ''

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'' called it a "rap rhapsody". Pan-European magazine ''

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'' commented: "Last year, this rapper hit paydirt with a reworking of

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's ''Fantastic Voyage''. This time around, he pulls off the same trick with this tall tale founded on

's '' Pastime Paradise''. Unlike the original, which surprisingly never was a hit, this one was a US number 1 and has every chance of succeeding in Europe." A reviewer from '' Music Week'' rated it four out of five, adding: "An infectious release from

-nominated rapper that challenges the assumed form of the genre. Number one in the US and could do big things here." The magazine's Alan Jones deemed it "a brooding and menacing track".

Chart performance

The single reached number one in the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy,

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, Austria, Denmark, Netherlands, Norway,

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

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, and New Zealand, making it Coolio's most successful single. In Australia, the song stayed at No. 1 for 14 weeks, a record that would only be broken 22 years later by Ed Sheeran's " Shape of You". Following Coolio's appearance on '' Celebrity Big Brother 6'', it re-entered the UK singles chart peaking at No. 31. In the United Kingdom, "Gangsta's Paradise" is the first rap single to sell over a million copies. In the United States, the single spent twelve weeks in the top two of the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, of which three were spent at No. 1 and nine at No. 2. The song was certified triple platinum by the RIAA on February 23, 1996, indicating 3 million copies sold. It has sold a further 1.8 million downloads in the US in the digital era . As of September 2022, the songs has sold 1.9 million downloads in US and has accumulated 763.1 million streams. Following Coolio's death on September 28, 2022, "Gangsta's Paradise" debuted two days later at number 5 on the UK Official Singles Sales Chart Top 100, and reentered the Official Top 100 Singles Chart on 7 October 2022 at number 55.

Music video

The accompanying music video for the song was directed by Antoine Fuqua and featured

Michelle Pfeiffer Michelle Marie Pfeiffer (; born April 29, 1958) is an American actress and producer. A prolific performer whose List of Michelle Pfeiffer performances, screen work spans over four decades, she became one of Hollywood's most bankable stars and ...

reprising her earlier role in '' Dangerous Minds''. Initially Coolio was concerned with the video's treatment stating, "I wanted some low-riders and some shit in it; I was trying to take it 'hood'." Despite this he trusted Fuqua and was ultimately pleased with the final result. For the music video, Coolio won the

at the

MTV Video Music Awards The MTV Video Music Awards (commonly abbreviated as the VMAs) is an award show presented by the cable channel MTV to honour the best in the music video medium. Originally conceived as an alternative to the Grammy Awards (in the video category) ...

in 1996. The music video hit one billion YouTube views in July 2022.

Cast and credits

* Directed by: Antoine Fuqua * Sound editor: Jeff Clark

Impact and legacy

In 1996, "Gangsta's Paradise" was named Best Rap 12-inch at the International Dance Music Awards in Miami. In 1999, '' The Village Voice'' listed the song number 4 in their list of "Top Singles of the 90's
Rocklist.net..Jeff Brown's Village Voice Lists - Best of the '80's & '90's
In 2008, it was ranked number 38 on

's "100 Greatest Songs of Hip Hop". In 2012, '' NME'' listed the song at number 100 in their ranking of "100 Best Songs of the 1990s". In 2019, ''

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'' placed it at number 20 in their ranking of "''Billboard''s Top Songs of the '90s". Same year, ''Stacker'' placed it at number 19 in their list of "Best 90s pop songs". In July 2020, digital publication '' The Pudding'' carried out a study on the most iconic songs from the '90s and songs that are most known by

Millennials Millennials, also known as Generation Y or Gen Y, are the Western demographic cohort following Generation X and preceding Generation Z. Researchers and popular media use the early 1980s as starting birth years and the mid-1990s to early 2000 ...

and the people of

Generation Z Generation Z (or more commonly Gen Z for short), colloquially known as zoomers, is the Western world, Western demography, demographic Cohort (statistics), cohort succeeding Millennials and preceding Generation Alpha. Researchers and popular me ...

. "Gangsta's Paradise" was the twelfth song with the highest recognisability rate.

Parodies and covers

There are several parodies of the song, including "

Amish Paradise "Amish Paradise" is a 1996 single by satirist "Weird Al" Yankovic. It is a parody of the hip hop song " Gangsta's Paradise" by Coolio featuring L.V. (which itself is a reworking of the Stevie Wonder song " Pastime Paradise"). Featured on the al ...

" by

"Weird Al" Yankovic Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic ( ; born October 23, 1959) is an American singer, musician, songwriter, record producer, actor and author. He is best known for creating comedy songs that make light of pop culture and often parody specifi ...

, which was released the following year, reaching number 53 on the U.S. chart. Coolio claimed that he did not give permission for the parody, which led to disagreements between the two. Yankovic claimed that he had been told Coolio had given the go-ahead through his record label, and apologized. Because of this incident, Yankovic now seeks approval for song parodies through the artists themselves, rather than communicating through intermediaries. Coolio himself said in a 2011 interview that he had since "apologized to him (Yankovic)", further stating in a ''Rolling Stone'' retrospective that objecting to the parody "was probably one of the least smart things I've done over the years." L.V. released a solo version of the single in 1996 on his debut album, ''

I Am L.V. ''I Am L.V.'' is the debut solo studio album by American singer L.V. (singer), L.V. It was released on May 7, 1996 through Tommy Boy Records. The album produced three charted singles: "Throw Your Hands Up", "I Am L.V.", and a reworking of his char ...

'' This version did not feature Coolio, and featured additional lyrics written by L.V. himself, with rap lyrics written by Scarface and Dani Blooms. In 1996, the song was covered by Battery for the electro-industrial various artists compilation '' Operation Beatbox'' and their 1996 album, ''Distance''. American

post-hardcore Post-hardcore is a punk rock music genre that maintains the aggression and intensity of hardcore punk but emphasizes a greater degree of creative expression. It was initially inspired by post-punk and noise rock. Like post-punk, the term has been ...

band In Fear And Faith covered the song in 2008. Austrian melodic death metal band Artas covered the song in 2008 on the album ''The Healing''. In 2014, post-hardcore band Falling in Reverse covered the song for the compilation album ''

Punk Goes 90s Vol. 2 ''Punk Goes 90s Vol. 2'' is the fifteenth compilation album in the '' Punk Goes...'' series and the second installment in the ''Punk Goes '90s'' series, the first being released in 2006. Each artist that appeared on the album was approached by Fea ...

''. The video included an appearance by Coolio. In 2015, Postmodern Jukebox produced a version in a 1920s jazz style. That same year, New Zealand

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...

band Like a Storm covered the song on their second studio album, ''Awaken the Fire''.

In other media

*It was first used in the 1995 drama film '' Dangerous Minds'' and was featured in its soundtrack. *In 2011, the song featured in the comedy film '' Bad Teacher''. *The song featured in the superhero film '' The Green Hornet''. *The song appears in the 2013 comedy film '' Pain & Gain''. *In 2019, the song was used in the original trailer for ''

Sonic the Hedgehog is a Japanese video game series and media franchise created by Sega. The franchise follows Sonic, an anthropomorphic blue hedgehog who battles the evil Doctor Eggman, a mad scientist. The main ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' games are platformers mo ...

''.

Accolades

Billboard * Billboard Year-End Chart-Toppers 1995 ** Top Hot 100 Single number one ** Top Hot 100 Single Sales number one (2.5 million copies) (2× platinum)

Grammy Awards The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

* Best Rap Solo Performance * Record of the Year (nominated) MTV *

1996 **

Track listings

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

All-time charts

Certifications and sales

References

External links

Rock on the Net
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