There are many different types of music but none what so ever hit the urban city culture like the genre gangster rap. Rap has a lot of negative influences in it but the stories of gangster rap are told of hard lives in an environment for the less fourtant of people in the United States. How can someone bring the pain of his upbringing out into the media showing the glimpses of reality in the city streets? Coolie’s gangsta paradise is a song that embraces the gangster feel and life in it’s very monotone lyrics and hard words. The music video is very interesting it shows Coolio raping to Michelle Pfeiffer about his experiences as a gangster. The music video is very dark and ominous because he starts to preach his problems to a white woman alone in candle lite room barley able to make out his face within the darkness. Other parts of video show the heavy set man singing in a dark room crying as if he is troubled by the pain of the life he choose a good example of this is in the lyrics of
We've been spending most our lives
Living in the Gangsta's Paradise
In the music video Coolio is singing to Pfeiffer about the problems . As he sings the scenes in the video change from a heavy set singing and crying about his painful experiences with his choices , other parts include scenes from the movie dangerous minds in which Michelle Pfeiffer plays a hard knock school teacher bent on saving a troubled school deep in LA. Some of the songs lyrics are pretty intense there’s a church inspired chorus that sings through out song making a more emotional feel to it. Lyrics like”
“As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
I take a look at my life and realize there's nuttin left “and
I'm the kinda G the little homies wanna be like
On my knees in the night
Sayin prayers in the street light
These lyrics have religious notations attached to them that puts a deep feel into the songs meaning of a persons ideal life on the streets . My personal belief about the song is that the song expresses the ideas of a gang bangers life style is life on the edges. Coolio expresses the ideas of life being very falsified by theb hard life killing , and gangbanging in the lyrics of
I'm livin life do-or-die-a, what can I say?
I'm twenty-three now, but will I live to see twenty-fo'?
The way things is goin I dunno
This song and music video is really challenging too the listener because it speaks the truth about the life style of a intercity gang banger who lives are shorten by violence , crime and drugs . I found the song and music video to be a delight and I can hope that hip hop goes back to its truthful roots of what really happens in life.
I really like the song that you chose. It’s a classic in the gangsta rap world. Who are some of your favorite rappers? I feel the same you do about how their music might contain explicit language and content but that it is just a reflection of their reality. Gangsta rap is reality based. The reason we like listening to gangsters rap is because they rap about what their lives are like as a gangster. Most of the time it’s catchy and you can’t help but want to sing along. The lyrics to the song do hit a chord with me and I empathize with young black males’ reality. Like when he says, “I'm livin life do-or-die-a, what can I say? I'm twenty-three now, but will I live to see twenty-fo'? The way things is goin I dunno”. It’s sad they deal with crime, drugs, and violence everyday but at least they have music to express themselves by and be heard. If people don’t know what it’s like then how can the public be aware and attempt to change things? Also, I don’t really get why Coolio would be singing this Michelle Pfeiffer. What does she have to do with anything? Maybe you could have elaborated on that a bit more.
ReplyDeleteThe Michelle Pffeiffer thing is based on the stereotype of intimidating black man and fearful white woman. Theirs a lot of metaphors in this video which is why I chose it.
ReplyDeleteGreat job on this topic. I think this is one of those songs that really shows what’s going on in the inner city. I think that Coolio did a great job in this video connecting it not only to the movie it was produced for but also to try and communicate to people to not forget about the kids in the inner city. The video started dark and dreary but picked up with the song and used the movie as a visual aid to the song. I like how you put the lyrics had a religious notation attached to them and how it represents a gangsters life and life style. The clip of the song where Coolio says he is twenty three but will he see twenty four is a real feeling that the gangsters really have. Living that kind of life style you never know when your time is up and it could be at any time. I also agreed with how you said the song is challenging to listeners because it does speak about real life events in the gang bangers life. All in all I really enjoyed reading this piece.
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