The music world is mourning the loss of Coolio, the artist behind one of the most ever-persevering rap classics, “Gangsta’s Paradise”. The song featured in the 1995 film Dangerous Minds, with its music video making reference to the movie directed by John N. Smith. It was also the title track of Coolio’s second studio album.
“Gangsta’s Paradise” received numerous accolades in its time, including the aforementioned music video, which took out Best Rap Video at the MTV Video Music Awards in 1996.
The video features Michelle Pfeiffer, seemingly reprising the role of her character from the film, walking down a hallway and confronting Coolio, asking him to tell her ‘what this is all about?’. The rapper emerges from the shadows and proceeds to deliver the iconic opening line of “Gangsta’s Paradise”, and the rest is history.
What is ‘Dangerous Minds’ all about?
Dangerous Minds is based on the autobiography of retired United States Maine, LouAnne Johnson, with Michelle Pfeiffer filling Johnson’s shoes. Following her tenure as a Marine, Johnson takes a job as a teacher at a high school within the marginalized community of Belmont, California. Sticking out like a sore thumb in front of a classroom full of students of color coming from tough upbringings, it becomes Johnson’s challenge to get through to these students with methods and language they can get on board with.
Unlike the music video it birthed, Dangerous Minds turned out to be a bit of a dud movie among critics, with ham-fisted stereotypes ultimately overshadowing and drowning out the message the film was trying to deliver. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a pretty abysmal critic rating of 33 percent. Audiences, however, seem to appreciate the film a little more, with a score of 64 percent.