Video hit Coolio

Coolio ft. L.V - Gangsta's Paradise

Gangsta's Paradise is a rap song by Coolio featuring L.V.. The song was released on the Coolio album Gangsta's Paradise, as well as the Dangerous Minds soundtrack in 1995. Coolio was awarded a Grammy for Best Rap Solo Performance, two MTV Video Music Award's for Best Rap Video and for 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.

It sampled the chorus and music of the song "Pastime Paradise" by Stevie Wonder (1976). Wonder performed the song with Coolio and L.V. at the 1995 Billboard Awards.

The song was also listed at number 69 on Billboard's Greatest Songs of All-Time and number one biggest selling single of 1995 on U.S. Billboard. In 2008, it was ranked number 38 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of Hip Hop.

The song has sold over 5 million copies in the U.S., U.K., and Germany alone, and at least 5.7 million worldwide, making it one of the best-selling singles of all time. Coolio has performed this song live at the Billboard Music Awards with L.V. and Stevie Wonder and also with Dutch singer Trijntje Oosterhuis.

The music is a reworking of Stevie Wonder's "Pastime Paradise", a song from his album Songs in the Key of Life. "Gangsta's Paradise" uses the same melody, but a different orchestration of the same music. Coolio's main contribution to the song was in changing the original's attack on materialism to the story of a young African-American "gangsta", regretting the life he has chosen.

The song begins with a line from Psalm 23:4 from the Bible: 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.

This song is one of the few Coolio tracks which does not feature profanity.

The music video for the song was directed by Antoine Fuqua of Propaganda Films, and featured Michelle Pfeiffer reprising her earlier role in Dangerous Minds.

When Coolio won the Best Rap Video at the MTV Video Music Awards in 1996, he said in a press conference that Bone Thugs-n-Harmony deserved the award for "Tha Crossroads".

This song was used in the Angel episode Double Or Nothing during a flashback to 1995, and in the 2011 films The Green Hornet and Bad Teacher.

The lyrics:

As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death

I take a look at my life and realize there's not much left

'Coz I've been blastin' and laughin' so long, that

Even my mama thinks that my mind is gone

But I ain't never crossed a man that didn't deserve it

Me be treated like a punk you know that's unheard of

You better watch how you're talkin', and where you're walkin'

Or you and your homies might be lined in chalk

I really hate to trip but I gotta, loc

As I grow I see myself in the pistol smoke, fool

I'm the kinda G the little homies wanna be like

On my knees in the night, sayin' prayers in the streetlight

Been spendin' most their lives, livin' in the gangsta's paradise

Been spendin' most their lives, livin' in the gangsta's paradise

Keep spendin' most our lives, livin' in the gangsta's paradise

Keep spendin' most our lives, livin' in the gangsta's paradise

They got the situation, they got me facin'

I can't live a normal life, I was raised by the stripes

So I gotta be down with the hood team

Too much television watchin' got me chasin' dreams

I'm an educated fool with money on my mind

Got my 10 in my hand and a gleam in my eye

I'm a loc'd out gangsta set trippin' banger

And my homies is down so don't arouse my anger, fool

Death ain't nothin' but a heartbeat away

I'm livin' life, do or die, what can I say

I'm twenty-three now, but will I live to see twenty-four

The way things are going I don't know

Tell me why are we, so blind to see

That the one's we hurt, are you and me

Been spendin' most their lives, livin' in the gangsta's paradise

Been spendin' most their lives, livin' in the gangsta's paradise

Keep spendin' most our lives, livin' in the gangsta's paradise

Keep spendin' most our lives, livin' in the gangsta's paradise

Power and the money, money and the power

Minute after minute, hour after hour

Everybody's runnin', but half of them ain't lookin'

What's going on in the kitchen, but I don't know what's cookin'

They say I gotta learn, but nobody's here to teach me

If they can't understand it, how can they reach me

I guess they can't, I guess they won't

I guess they front, that's why I know my life is out of luck, fool

Been spendin' most their lives, livin' in the gangsta's paradise

Been spendin' most their lives, livin' in the gangsta's paradise

Keep spendin' most our lives, livin' in the gangsta's paradise

Keep spendin' most our lives, livin' in the gangsta's paradise

Tell me why are we, so blind to see

That the one's we hurt, are you and me

Tell me why are we, so blind to see

That the one's we hurt, are you and me