
Gangsta's Paradise
Lead vocals: Man
Taal: Engels
Gangsta's Paradise is een single van de Amerikaanse rapper Coolio en de Amerikaanse rapper en soulzanger L.V. Het is een cover van Pastime Paradise van Stevie Wonder uit 1976. De single was afkomstig van de soundtrack van de film Dangerous Minds en kwam later op het album Gangsta's Paradise te staan. De single Gangsta's Paradise leverde een Grammy op en werd gekozen tot beste single van het jaar. L.V. bracht op een solo-album onder dezelfde titel ook een eigen versie van het nummer uit zonder Coolio. Op 1 augustus 1995 werd het nummer wereldwijd op single uitgebracht.
"Gangsta's Paradise" is a single by American rapper Coolio, released on August 1, 1995, by Tommy Boy, Warner Bros. and MCA. Interpolating Stevie Wonder's song "Pastime Paradise" (1976), "Gangsta's Paradise" features vocals from American singer L.V., who served as a co-composer and co-lyricist with Coolio and Doug Rasheed, with Wonder also being credited for the composition and lyrics. Certified Platinum in October, the song was included on Coolio's second album, Gangsta's Paradise, in November 1995. Its music video was directed by Antoine Fuqua and featured Michelle Pfeiffer. The song is taken from Pfeiffer's movie Dangerous Minds, and the music video is also themed around the movie.
The song was the top-selling single of 1995 on the Billboard Hot 100 and the first rap single ever to go straight to number one in Britain. 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 and Billboard magazine ranked it among the "500 Best Pop Songs of All Time" in 2023. 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. The song was voted as the best single of the year in The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop critics' poll.
The song has sold over five million copies in the United States, United Kingdom, and Germany. 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.