GarnettFan4Life
Administrator
I always remembered this being a 1996 smash hit but it turns out my memory is terrible and it was actually August 1995.
To say this song was huge is an understatement. It influenced me, a white 15 year old, average grades student in Australia. Someone with no connection to gangs, no worries for my safety other than bully d*heads at school. I was hardcore into basketball. I wanted to be Anfernee Hardaway or a 6 foot 5 black dude with hops. This was more realistic than Shaq anyway..... But I was stuck in a 5 foot 9 white dudes body. I had a bit of hops though and could dunk a size 3 ball on the bent canteen rims. Close as I got unfortunately. I learned all the lyrics. I loved the way L.V. sounded on the track and chased down a Cassingle (I think) of his music and loved Throw Your Hands Up but it didn't make it big in Aus.
I really liked the Dangerous Minds movie but it was this song that stood out and it was great that Michelle Pfeiffer was in the video clip - also great and directed by Antoine Fuqua who would go on to become a pretty big director.
The only negative memory I have of this dude is the live performance. Traveled up to Sydney Entertainment Centre for the concert, my parents took me and my brother - cool parents or what? lol - Coolio must've been having the time of his life backstage 'cause he made Naughty by Nature and the other support acts do virtually the whole show for him - he came out at like 11pm and was done by 1130!! Haha - to be fair - he didn't have that much material to get through at that time as the other CD's hadn't come out but dammnnnnn that sucked. We were like WHAT??!?! He's done?? Crazy.
Anyway - we still cranked up the volume on this song and thank you to the neighbours on either side of our house - who were probably in the 70's at that time - for not calling the police about the vibrations coming from next door - BASS BOOSTED!!!!!
Thanks @kiwi_in_melb for this - it means a lot mate. This really is the perfect looking card of Coolio - the shades, the auto. I love it.
I looked for the concert ticket so I could post that too but it seems I only have ticket stubs back to 1999 and some NBL games - might be at the parents house somewhere!
Cheers to the lost.
Some crazy facts from wiki
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.
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"
The music video hit one billion YouTube views in July 2022.
The song was listed at number 85 on Billboard's Greatest Songs of All Time.
In 2008, it was ranked number 38 on VH1's "100 Greatest Songs of Hip Hop"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gangsta's_Paradise
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coolio
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L.V._(singer)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dangerous_Minds
To say this song was huge is an understatement. It influenced me, a white 15 year old, average grades student in Australia. Someone with no connection to gangs, no worries for my safety other than bully d*heads at school. I was hardcore into basketball. I wanted to be Anfernee Hardaway or a 6 foot 5 black dude with hops. This was more realistic than Shaq anyway..... But I was stuck in a 5 foot 9 white dudes body. I had a bit of hops though and could dunk a size 3 ball on the bent canteen rims. Close as I got unfortunately. I learned all the lyrics. I loved the way L.V. sounded on the track and chased down a Cassingle (I think) of his music and loved Throw Your Hands Up but it didn't make it big in Aus.
I really liked the Dangerous Minds movie but it was this song that stood out and it was great that Michelle Pfeiffer was in the video clip - also great and directed by Antoine Fuqua who would go on to become a pretty big director.
The only negative memory I have of this dude is the live performance. Traveled up to Sydney Entertainment Centre for the concert, my parents took me and my brother - cool parents or what? lol - Coolio must've been having the time of his life backstage 'cause he made Naughty by Nature and the other support acts do virtually the whole show for him - he came out at like 11pm and was done by 1130!! Haha - to be fair - he didn't have that much material to get through at that time as the other CD's hadn't come out but dammnnnnn that sucked. We were like WHAT??!?! He's done?? Crazy.
Anyway - we still cranked up the volume on this song and thank you to the neighbours on either side of our house - who were probably in the 70's at that time - for not calling the police about the vibrations coming from next door - BASS BOOSTED!!!!!
Thanks @kiwi_in_melb for this - it means a lot mate. This really is the perfect looking card of Coolio - the shades, the auto. I love it.
I looked for the concert ticket so I could post that too but it seems I only have ticket stubs back to 1999 and some NBL games - might be at the parents house somewhere!
Cheers to the lost.
Some crazy facts from wiki
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.
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"
The music video hit one billion YouTube views in July 2022.
The song was listed at number 85 on Billboard's Greatest Songs of All Time.
In 2008, it was ranked number 38 on VH1's "100 Greatest Songs of Hip Hop"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gangsta's_Paradise
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coolio
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L.V._(singer)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dangerous_Minds
Last edited:
