90's Music: Gangsta's Paradise

Dangerous Minds

Year: 1995
Film: Dangerous Minds - a 90s film about a high school of hard knocks.
Song: Gangsta's Paradise - a song about street life
Artist: Coolio and L.V.

I always thought Gangsta's Paradise was made for the movie, but when I re-watched the film I realised the song only played for the opening sequences. It sets the tone for the film. And you only hear the song again for about five seconds for the lead up to a climactic scene, where someone is about to die. So, why did this song get stuck in my memory bank?

The answer is simple; this song had a really clever marketing team. At the time when internet and digital media was still in its evolutionary stages, other media was used to sell the message. Convergence is common place in media, and in this case, the tactic worked. By using a massive media, the song reached mass audiences internationally before the release of Coolio's album. (This is perhaps slightly harder these days simply because digital media is so accessible.)

This song was released on another two albums, a soundtrack, a single EP and a compliation disc. It was like the song got as much air time as the movie did,it was recycled on international music charts. all this attention earned Coolio and L.V. two Grammy's for best song and album.


This lyrics epitomised what life was like on the “street”.
However, at the time there was no shortage of rap songs (think about 2pac and Biggy etc) the difference was this song was radio friendly with no swearing, so it was easily marketed.Coolio intelligently recited prose from the bible and then lyrically twists his own style into the song. I think it was very clever the way the song managed to become a hit, using a media platform such as cinema to debut a song. Not original, but still very clever.



Movie review:
http://www.reelviews.net/movies/d/dangerous_minds.html