Music can give deep insights into the way other people see the world. I recently had a touching conversation with a good friend about how Linkin Park struck a chord deep in their soul that resonated with their authentic self, especially when they were a teenager struggling to make sense of the world they were growing up in. Sharing music helped me understand them better.
Today’s song helped me begin to see what life is like for kids who grow up in struggling communities without strong role models to mentor them on how to build on their own abilities and create something more with their life.
They say I gotta learn, but nobody’s here to teach me
If they can’t understand it, how can they reach me?
I guess they can’t, I guess they won’t
I guess they front; that’s why I know my life is out of luck, fool!
I wouldn’t say my life was particularly easy growing up, but it also wasn’t soul crushingly bleak. Some kids in this country wake up every day with a real risk of going hungry, getting offered drugs, being assaulted, or worse. I don’t know what kind of person I would have become in an environment like that. I’d like to think positively, but I’m aware enough of my dark side to say that I really don’t know for sure.
That awareness helps me have that much more empathy for those who want a different life, but don’t see a way to make it happen.
The musical construction is on point. It’s a relentless rhythm that samples directly from Stevie Wonder’s Pastime Paradise from 1976. (Check out the original. It’s surreal.) I love how Coolio’s rapping changes pitch instead of the monotone that appears in a lot of rap. Also, the chorus vocals by L.V. are just mesmerizing.
The story of how the powerful lyrics came about is pretty cool. From a FarOutMagazine article I found:
Coolio said of the writing process: “I sat down and I started writing. Hearing the bass line, the chorus line and the hook, it just opened up my mind. ‘As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death/I take a look at my life, and I see there’s nothing left’ — I freestyled that; that came off the top of the dome, and I wrote that down.
“I thought about it for a minute,” he continued, “and then I wrote the whole rest of the song without stopping, from the first verse to the third verse. You know, I like to believe that it was divine intervention. ‘Gangsta’s Paradise’ wanted to be born; it wanted to come to life, and it chose me as the vessel.”
The music was featured in the Michelle Pfeiffer movie Dangerous Minds in 1995, which helped propel it to international fame. With this song, CooIio earned his first Grammy, winning for Best Rap Solo Performance.
Almost 30 years later, it’s still a powerful ride.
For today’s #musicmonday here is Gangsta’s Paradise by Coolio (feat. L.V.)