We find the same mix of violence and good-natured cheerfulness as, in particular, in the style of Eazy-E or The Notorious B.I.G., the gangsters who kill you then make fun of your corpse.

The version of Coolio has become an international hit, quickly and sustainably No.

United States as in Europe.

Verse 1 As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death Surprise The previous lyrics by N.W.A., Eazy-E or even Ice Cube, had accustomed us to some shattering beginnings made of foul verbal abuse.

Here, Coolio has preferred to strike the mind of his audience by doing precisely the opposite: he begins on a beautiful verse that connects his song to a long and noble religious tradition, since this sentence is actually a quote from the Bible, Psalm 23 of the Old Testament, used over and over by many artists (Jay Z, Nas, Tupac, Kanye West, Marilyn Manson, The Offspring, Megadeth, etc.) The verse also recalls the famous beginning of Dantes INFERNO: Midway upon the journey of our life I found myself within a forest dark, For the straightforward pathway had been lost.

Ah me how hard a thing it is to say What was this forest savage, rough, and stern, Which in the very thought renews the fear.

So bitter is it, death is little more; But of the good to treat, which there I found, Speak will I of the other things I saw there.

As we will see, those 3 texts this song, the Psalm 23 from the Bible, and Dantes Inferno, share several fundamental ingredients: self-awareness, existential questions, a dark, gloomy atmosphere, a climate of anxiety, fear, and a need to find a meaning to life and suffering.

Coolio told Rolling Stone about the way he wrote the song in a feeling of divine intervention, after L.V.

Coolio: 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 deathI take a look at my life and I see theres 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, and then I wrote the whole rest of the song without stopping, from the first verse to the third verse.

Gangstas Paradise wanted to be born; it wanted to come to life, and it chose me as the vessel.

This opening in a religious, sacred, dark atmosphere obviously coincides with the title, the Gangstas Paradise, and announces a form of hybridization of rap with another great genre of the American black song: the Gospel, the song of prayer, of Christian inspiration.

I take a look at my life and realize theres nothin left I take: this second verse to the first person confirms that it is an autobiographical, personal, even introspective text.

The author looks at his life, realizes: it is what one does when one undertakes to make an existential assessment, a therapy, or a confession.

Its totally not the perspective of the previous gangsta-rap songs we analyzed, in which psychology was just absent: the characters of FUCK THA POLICE for example were agressive, but superficial, not deep.

I realize theres nothing left: the judgment is severe, and tragic.

Someone who speaks so personnally and whose blues sounds so heavy triggers a feeling of empathy and friendship from the public.

The fact this feeling of failure comes from a gangster, a hard-boiled man, who has the courage to confess his intimate thoughts so sincerely, makes it particularly touching.

Coolio was born in Compton in 1963 and was a member of the huge gang in the area, the Crips.

Thats probably the reason why he sounds more authentic than some other rappers who were studio gangstas, and why he knows about the melancholy of this dangerous lifestyle.

Cause Ive been blastin and laughin so long Ive been blastin: the expression is ambiguous, it evokes both the fact of taking drugs (blast his brains) and shooting (causing an explosion with a gun).

This polysemy is probably doubly true, he did both, he says both in one word.

Coolio Valley Of Death