Originally recorded for the “Dangerous Minds” soundtrack and not intended for an album, “Gangsta’s Paradise” was an unlikely if engineered hit. Although his 1994 Tommy Boy debut “It Takes a Thief” was a chart success given the popularity of the single “Fantastic Voyage,” it still would have been hard to forecast the multiplatinum smash that was “Gangsta’s Paradise.” Coolio’s balance could probably best be labeled a product of his reaching a hip hop audience before a pop one, unlike, say, Skee-Lo and Paperboy. The dichotomy between street credibility and commercial success is tenuous, well-explored, and hard to formulate. With his contribution to Ras Kass’ 1995 debut “Soul on Ice,” he became his coast’s Method Man - the sole guest rapper on his coast’s most lyrically conceptual masterpiece.
As fans will be quick to point out, though, he was far from a corporate creation, first gaining fame as a member of WC and the Maad Circle, an acclaimed Los Angeles outfit prior to WC’s success as a member of Westside Connection. Coolio recorded the theme song for Nickelodeon’s “Kenan and Kel,” rapped with Kermit on “Muppets Tonight,” and guested on “All That,” “The Nanny,” and “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” during his superstardom, cementing his status as a family-friendly MC with gravity-defying braids and a rather loud wardrobe. The pop culture lexicon is likely to recall him as somewhat of a West Coast Fresh Prince - a squeaky-clean rapper with mega-hits and a massive television presence. Coolio managed to straddle the line between pop success and rap legitimacy as well as anyone who preceded or succeeded him.
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