Coolio made hip-hop mainstream with Gangsta’s Paradise

.’s global success Gangster’s paradisesubordinate died today Coolio (59), who came as a surprise to the rapper himself, admitted to a music magazine in 2015 rolling rock. This was a song by Hood. With everything you see in the clip and what I say in the song, whites will never like this song, I think.”

The thought wasn’t that crazy. Although hip-hop made great progress in the 1980s and already spawned a number of major artists (Run DMC, LL Cool J, and the Beastie Boys for example), it certainly hasn’t become mainstream in the Netherlands yet.

Although it may be hard to imagine now, hip-hop music was rarely played on Dutch radio stations and on music channels MTV and TMF in the mid-1990s. Also on the 1995 Dutch Song Charts (bus soonAnd the It’s night) , Fadee Saeed (I want to be hippie, luv u more) and the tool Conquest of Heaven tone.

Even, in the fall of that year, this song was released by a Los Angeles rapper who had hardly hit the spot in Holland. Gangster’s paradise It came at number 31 on the Top-40 list at the end of October 1995 and climbed to number one in two weeks, with Guus Meeuwis’ It’s night They deposed the throne.

The Coolio Mega Top 50 also topped the competitive edge for weeks. The hit was pushed out of number one after five weeks hard breathing From Linda, Rose and Jessica.

Gangsta Paradise clip:

Gangster’s paradise It was a dam breach in the words of radio producer Andrew Makenga. “In the Netherlands we were in the middle of the Eurohouse, the happy diehards. And suddenly Kolio came. For the big radio stations, that was the moment they saw that they could no longer ignore hip-hop.”

Dutch rapper Brainpower thinks so, too. “Coleo has definitely made rap mainstream.” According to Makinga, other rappers were able to break through thanks to the hit. The song means a lot.

in Gangster’s paradise Become a part of Stevie Wonders Heaven’s Hobby Sampling. This was also an important part of her success, according to Makenga and Brian Bauer. Makinga: “Every now and then you have such a special track that touches people. This song shows that hip-hop was born into the house of soul and jazz. It also instantly proves how good Stevie Wonder’s music is.”

Although Coolio helped popularize his rap, he couldn’t quite follow his beast. Some of his later songs made charts (CU when you get there It came in 1997 at number 9, but the success Gangster’s paradise Never equaled.