Song · Coolio
“Gangsta's Paradise” by Coolio featuring L.V.
Released 1995 Featuring L.V.
“Gangsta's Paradise” by Coolio featuring L.V. appears on 6 radio countdowns from 5 stations between 1995 and 2026. It was first released in 1995. Its best result is #3 on the Triple J Hottest 100 of 1995. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #116 alternative song of 1995.
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Video from YouTube (Tommy Boy). Pressing play loads YouTube's player. Watch on YouTube
Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise", with L.V. singing alongside him, came out on Tommy Boy in 1995 as the lead single from the Dangerous Minds soundtrack, the Michelle Pfeiffer film, and doubled as the lead single for Coolio's second album of the same name. Written with producer Doug Rasheed on the bones of Stevie Wonder's 1976 "Pastime Paradise", which earned Wonder a share of the credit, it trades G-funk's easy roll for something grave and dead serious.
Nothing outsold it that year: no single moved more copies on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1995, it was the first rap single to go straight in at number one in Britain, and it sold over five million copies across the US, the UK and Germany. Antoine Fuqua directed the film-themed video with Pfeiffer in it, and the song brought Coolio a Grammy for Best Rap Solo Performance, 2 MTV Video Music Awards and the top single in the Village Voice's Pazz & Jop critics' poll.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | 3 | Triple J Australia (national) | Triple J Hottest 100 of 1995 | 100 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 85 | Triple J | Triple J Hottest 100 of the Past 20 Years (2013) | 100 |
| 2022 | 16 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 900 Songs of the '90s | 900 |
| 2023 | 106 | The Current | The Current's 893 Essential Songs of the '90s | 893 |
| 2025 | 78 | WFPK | WFPK Top 500 Songs of the '90s | 500 |
| 2026 | 610 | WYEP | WYEP Greatest Songs of All Time | 1180 |
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