It started in 1995 in a home in Los Angeles’ Hollywood Hills, where two roommates — a music producer and a D.J. — used to compete over who could find the best sample from their record collections.
One day, Paul Stewart, the D.J., conceded that his roommate, the producer Doug Rasheed, had bested him when Rasheed put on a vinyl copy of Stevie Wonder’s 1976 album “Songs in the Key of Life
The track that Rasheed played, “Pastime Paradise,” opened with a mournful synth loop that replicated the sound of a string section. The song that it inspired, “Gangsta’s Paradise,” would change both of their lives and catapult an up-and-coming West Coast rapper named Coolio to global stardom.
Coolio,died on Wednesday in Los Angeles at age 59; the cause has not been disclosed. The OG rapper had a handful of hits before and after “Gangsta’s Paradise,” but nothing in his career would top the popularity and cultural influence of that track, which was featured in the 1995 movie “Dangerous Minds” and went on both to win a Grammy and inspire a Weird Al Yankovic parody.
A lot of people say it saved them from whatever demons they were dealing with, that they listened to the song and it helped them carry on,” Coolio said in the Rolling Stone oral history.Take sometime and stream COOLIO’S CATALOG in link below pay homage to the pioneer in the game -GOOD GRIEF
