Gangsta's Paradise

This is a reworking of Stevie Wonder's 1976 song "Pastime Paradise." It wasn't Coolio's idea to use Wonder's song; a singer named Larry Sanders - who goes by the stage name L.V. (Large Variety) - started working on it and sent a demo to Collio, who was looking for a song to record for the 1995 movie Dangerous Minds. Starring Michelle Pfeiffer, the film is about a troubled school and the challenges faced by the students and the idealistic teacher played by Pfeiffer. Coolio wrote a lyric to express the feelings of despair and abandonment felt by the kids at the school, putting it to the track Sanders created. Along with the song's producer, Doug Rasheed, Coolio and Sanders crafted the song, with Sanders singing the hook. They still had to clear the sample from Stevie Wonder, and this proved difficult - Wonder rejected the first version of "Gangsta's Paradise" because it contained swearing. After Coolio rewrote the lyric, Wonder gave his approval.

Having grown up in Compton, California, Coolio could certainly relate to the gangsta lifestyle (so could the song's co-writer Larry Sanders, who survived a shooting), but he says that the song is not about him, but about the kids portrayed in Dangerous Minds who feel they don't have control of their lives.

This won the Grammy in 1995 for Best Rap Solo Performance.