I had gone over to my manager’s house to sign for a check. recently interviewed Coolio to get the story behind the creation of his signature song, his recollections about the globe-trotting rollercoaster ride the song took him (and hip-hop itself) on, how he views his place in hip-hop and what he is working on these days.Ĭoolio: Honestly, my memories are still so clear of exactly how 'Gangsta's Paradise' came to be. The special RSD edition of Gangsta’s Paradise has been remastered, pressed across two heavyweight 180g red vinyl records, and features some previously unreleased bonus material on the flipside of its second disc. While Record Store Day has typically taken place on a single day in April every year since its inception in 2008, this year’s event has been spread across three separate dates in August, September and October due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To celebrate the monumental milestone and acknowledge the song's expansive legacy, Coolio’s Gangsta’s Paradise album is getting a special 25th Anniversary vinyl reissue for Record Store Day this Saturday (Sept. 1 in the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Austria, Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, Scotland and Zimbabwe, just to name a few. The song took off with international audiences as well, reaching No. Both albums it appeared on-first the Dangerous Minds soundtrack and then his own sophomore album Gangsta’s Paradise-were quickly certified multi-platinum, while the single itself sold over three million copies on its own. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop charts, became the best-selling single of 1995 across all genres, and helped to mainstream hip-hop in previously uncharted ways. More than just a flash-in-the-pan genre hit, 'Gangsta’s Paradise' hit No.

However, soon enough that 'everybody' he was excited to share his new song with would substantially grow to include millions and millions of music fans around the world, as 'Gangsta’s Paradise' became a chart-topping, multi-platinum global hit throughout the fall/winter of 1995 and well into the summer of 1996.

To be clear, the 'everybody' Coolio was initially thinking of was just his record label and his friends-'My day ones and my homies that I trusted to give me a real opinion,' he states. 'I was so excited about sharing it with everybody.' 'My first thought when I listened back to the demo of ‘Gangsta’s Paradise’ was ‘Man, the hood’s gonna love this shit,'' recollects Coolio.

Coolio gangsta paradise album cover