Hope he’s resting in gangster’s paradise. We’ll see you when we get there.
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RIP to Coolio. A talented musician who was a major part of the soundtrack of my time at Duke - his music brings back many happy memories of good times in Durham.
Hope he’s resting in gangster’s paradise. We’ll see you when we get there.
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Some thoughts about Coolio.
1. The video for "Fantastic Voyage" is like the hip-hop version of "Love Shack", only tenfold -- he's got him a Chrysler, it seats about 200.
2. Whether he approved of it or not, Coolio was immortalized by a Weird Al parody.
3. His unforgettable appearance on The Food Network's Chopped. There's a really poor quality video of it, and also this article. I saw him squeeze the lemon onto his dishes after time was up and thought, "That is so gangsta." It's hard to get away with cheating in front of the camera, and he was indeed chopped.
I do find it quite ironic that "Gangsta's Paradise" was a cover of Stevie Wonder's Pastime Paradise (as noted in the linked article as well) so can't really be upset with another cover/satire of it. Having said that, seems like all was good in the end and there was simply a communication misunderstanding (as can happen).
I actually recall for my junior high "music show", us students WANTED to perform Coolio's Gangsta's Paradise but the teacher/admin thought it wasn't appropriate for school so chose Pastime Paradise instead...Interestingly, Gangsta's Paradise is basically the ONLY Coolio song without any profanities (because Stevie Wonder didn't like them), although of course it uses the word "gangsta."
RIP Coolio!
Here's the Coolio quote (from the linked Al thread). Coolio rips into HIMSELF for being "stupid" and "cocky" and that he [Coolio] was "wrong":
https://twitter.com/danozzi/status/1...578689/photo/1