In 1995, at their home in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles, two roommates, a music producer and a DJ, were competing to see who could find the best sample from their record collection.
One day, DJ Paul Stewart beat his roommate and producer Douglas Rasheed when he turned on a vinyl version of Stevie Wonder’s 1976 album Songs in the Key of Life. admitted that
Tracks played by Rasheed, “Entertainment paradise” It opens with a mournful synth loop that recreates the sound of a string section. The song it inspired, “Gangsta’s Paradise,” changed their lives and catapulted an up-and-coming West Coast rapper named Coolio to global stardom.
Coolio, born Artis Leon Ivey Jr., died Wednesday in Los Angeles at the age of 59. The cause is unknown. The rapper had a few hits before and after “Gangsta’s Paradise,” but during his career, the track was featured in the 1995 film Dangerous in His Mind, winning Grammy Awards for both. Nothing beats popularity and cultural influence.Inspiring Weird Al Yankovic parody.
In recent years, Coolio has commented on the song’s legacy and its long shadow over the rest of his career, interview, Both blessings and curses (“more blessings than curses,” he noted).
“That record took him to the top,” Rasheed, the song’s composer and producer, said in an interview Thursday. “It made him world famous.”
Coolio’s opening words, based on Psalm 23, have become one of 90s rap’s most widely remembered poems. ”
The singer on the song, LV (real name Larry Sanders), had already started collaborating with Rasheed when Coolio wrote the lyrics, he said in an interview. That Hollywood Wonder He was listening to his songs at his Hills home, LV, thinking of turning a ‘entertainment paradise’ into a ‘gangsta paradise’.
LV recorded multiple vocal tracks, which Rasheed put together to sound like a large choir singing a haunting refrain.
How Coolio first heard the track depends on who is telling it. In LV’s version, LV brought the song with recorded vocals to Coolio on cassette tape, hoping to convince him to collaborate after another rapper turned him down. In Coolio’s account, According to Rolling Stone’s Oral History Starting in 2015, the rapper was visiting his Hollywood Hills home to pick up a check from his manager, Stewart, when he heard the track.
“I walked into the studio and asked Doug, ‘Wow, whose track is that?'” Coolio told Rolling Stone. “Doug said, ‘Oh, that’s what I’m working on.’ I said, ‘Well, that’s mine!'”
Coolio recalled writing poetry in one session, rapping about chasing dreams and the uncertainty of whether or not he’ll live to 24. (He was in his early 30s at the time, but 24 rhymed better, he said. 2015 radio interview.)
A reinterpreted song was still needed to get the green light from the Wonder camp. However, Rasheed recalled, Wonder was offended by the profanity and violence expressed in the lyrics. Another problem with him is that Wonder’s music publishers receive three-quarters of his publishing revenue.
Stewart, who managed both Coolio and LV at the time, said in an interview on Thursday, “The terms were a little tough, but if they didn’t approve it, there would have been no hits.
Stewart hunted for the song and had a very interested party at MCA Records, who were working on the soundtrack to “Dangerous Minds” starring Michelle Pfeiffer as an ex-Marine turned teacher at a cash-strapped Bay Area high school. I found. (The film received mixed reviews from Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan. call it “stereotypical, predictable, pointlessly simplistic”)
The music video, directed by Antoine Fuqua and featuring a stern-faced Pfeiffer looking down on Cool Rio, initially received a pass from MTV and captured the interest of viewers until MCA arranged for the video to be promoted on the channel. rice field.
MTV picked it up and said, “It was the most incredible record takeoff we’ve ever seen”, said Stewart. “Gangsta’s Paradise” held his top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks and was named his No. 1 chart at the end of the year. 1996 Grammy Award for Best Rap Solo Performance.
Then strange Al came.
A musical parody artist and his team approached Coolio for permission to create their own version of the song “Amish Paradise,” Rashid said, but the rapper refused. Knowing that Weird Al didn’t need their green light, legally speaking, Rashid gave them his approval, despite Coolio’s skepticism.
“I think he just didn’t want to be taken lightly,” Rasheed said. A collaborator explained to Coolio that “Gangsta’s Paradise” told the real hardships and fears of his life on the streets in a way that resonated with people from all walks of life.
Coolio wrote in Rolling Stone’s Oral History, “Many people said they were saved from whatever demons they were dealing with. They listened to the song and it pushed them forward.” It is said that it was useful for
The 1996 music video for “Amish Paradise” opens with Yankovic wearing a wide-brimmed hat and a thick beard, “walking through a grain-harvesting valley.” Instead of mentioning that Coolio was “raised by the state” and found protection in “food teams,” Jankovic rapped about “milking cows” and parties “like in 1699.”
Rasheed said he saw Coolio soften into a parody over time and saw it as more of a tribute than a mockery. And in a subsequent interview, the rapper said it changed his view of Yankovic’s songs.
“I let it go long ago” Coolio told Vice “Let me say this. I apologized to Weird Al a long time ago, but I was wrong.” added.
of Newsweek interview Months later, Jankovic said he was relieved. “I’m not the kind of guy who eats beef with people because I do my best to make sure they’re okay with what I’m doing,” he said. It was a small moment in the entire history of .
“Amish Paradise” gave the Coolio song a boost, but the track itself was a huge hit. LV recalled Coolio and his crew touring the world, including Japan, France and Australia, and felt like they were attracting “Michael Jackson level” crowds who would recite the lyrics together.Earlier this year, Coolio celebrated The song has reached 1 billion views on YouTube.
“He worked his magic on that track,” said Rasheed. “His voice, the way he spoke, the rhythm – it was really special.”