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Coolio performing live at Tin Roof in San Diego, CA 10/11/2014. “Gangsta's Paradise“ is a song by American rapper Coolio, featuring singer L.V. The song was released on Coolio's album of the same name, as well as the soundtrack for the 1995 film Dangerous Minds. It samples the chorus and instrumentation, and includes some of the lyric, with altered meaning, of Stevie Wonder's 1976 song “Pastime Paradise“. Stevie Wonder apparently used 'past-time paradise' in an ironic reference to squandering of the present on nostalgically 'living in the past'. Coolio apparently deplores an ostensibly paradisiacal but factually dangerous and time-wasting 'gangsta' lifestyle. The song was listed at number 85 on Billboard's Greatest Songs of All Time and was the 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. NME listed the song at number 100 in their ranking of “100 Best Songs of the 1990s“ in 2012. Coolio was awarded a Grammy for Best Rap Solo Performance, two MTV Video Music Awards for Best Rap Video 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 5 million copies in the United States, United Kingdom and Germany alone, Coolio performed this song live at the 1995 Billboard Music Awards with L.V. and Wonder and at the 38th Annual Grammy Awards with L.V. #coolio #hiphop #rap #music #gangstasparadise #dangerousminds #Keepspendinmostourlives #Livininagangstasparadise #powerandthemoney #moneyandthepower #minuteafterminute #hourafterhour #tinroof #sandiego #california #chrisbrakephotovideo
