Like most good hip-hop songs, Gangsta's Paradise started with a great sample - in this case the sound of a string section as replicated by a Yamaha GX-1 synthesizer a keyboard so advanced and rare that in 1975, when the riff was recorded, it cost US$60,000 - about AU$407,000 today. In Australia, it stayed at number 1 for 13 weeks - a long-standing record in the ARIA Charts-era that was only broken in 2017 by Ed Sheeran's Shape Of You (who was in turn superseded by Tones & I's Dance Monkey in 2019) - and was 1995's biggest-selling single here.īut where did this song come from, and what happened to the artist, born Artis Leon Ivey Jr, better known as Coolio? Welcome to paradise

Its title track remains one of the biggest selling songs of all time. The album cover of Coolio's Gangsta's Paradise. In America, it won a Grammy for best rap solo performance and, as of 2018, it was among the 100 biggest selling singles of all time in the UK it was number 31 by the same measure. It was believed to be the biggest-selling single of 1995 worldwide, and went to number 1 in at least 19 countries. If you instantly heard the next lyric, 'I take a look at my life and realise there's nuthin' left', then this article is for you.Ĭoolio's Gangsta's Paradise turns 25 this year, and its place in music history is assured. 'As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death … '

It begins with a haunting string sample some listeners recognise from a vintage Stevie Wonder track, layered over simple hip-hop percussion and deep bass.Īfter 11 seconds, there's a clap of snare drum, and a man starts quoting a Bible verse made famous the year before by Samuel L Jackson in Quentin Tarantino's film Pulp Fiction. Everywhere you turn in Australia, it seems like only one song is playing.

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