“Because they don’t know how to reach me”: Coolio, 2015 in Los Angeles
Photo: dpa
Anyone remember »Gangsta’s Paradise«? That was 1995 and Coolio’s biggest hit. The rapper, whose real name was Leon Ivey Jr., died of a heart attack in Los Angeles last Wednesday. He was 59 years old. His career had stalled for years. His last studio album »From the Botton 2 the Top« was released in 2009; in recent years he has earned his money with “I Love The 90s” concerts, reality and cooking shows.
Born in upstate Pennsylvania, he grew up in Compton, a suburb of Los Angeles. He worked at the airport before becoming a professional rapper in the late ’80s. When he then signed to the Tommy Boy label, he landed his first hit with “Fantastic Voyage”. A lyrical blockbuster that aired on MTV worldwide. In my teenage room, I jumped and danced to it, imitating the cool poses in the video and imagining myself driving around the US West Coast in a convertible. Coolio brought the famous American Dream closer without sweeping the blatant injustices of US society completely under the carpet.
“Gangsta’s Paradise” from the soundtrack to the high school drama “Dangerous Minds” was an adaptation of the 1976 Stevie Wonder song “Pastime Paradise.” It became the anthem of Generation X. Middle-class kids hummed the legendary in the hallways of German schools Refrain to yourself. The song about the shitty reality of young people from the US underclass was appropriated in fragments and adapted primarily in East Germany: “They say I gotta learn, but nobody’s here to teach me. / If they can’t understand it, how can they reach me’.
The feeling of being misunderstood in puberty met the difficulties of understanding the West in the East; a new reality in which not even the grown-ups knew what was actually supposed to be in the colorful flashing packaging. Somehow Coolio hit the right note for young authority skeptics who believed that the »Gangsta’s Paradise« sung about in the chorus was something like a romantic alternative to bourgeois everyday life.
In fact, US hip-hop established the gangster as a role model in the 90s. In Germany, adolescents then played through the first stages of petty crime as if they were a level in a computer game. While their role models in the US were striving to flee the criminal swamp as quickly as possible, quite a few of their fans in this country wanted to be a part of it for reasons of »realness«.
But Coolio eventually started cooking on TV. His interest in it was sparked as a child when his mother got him to help her in the kitchen after a failed grilled cheese sandwich. At least that’s what it says in his cookbook “Five-Star Dishes for a One-Star Price”. This should be food for everyone, not just the “starched-stiff elite” who could afford expensive dining out, fueled by his love of the spiciness of balsamic vinegar.
From Star to C-Celebrity: Coolio’s last major appearance was on the political stage: In late 2017, the musician announced his candidacy as a running mate for Cherie DeVille, as the porn star in the Democratic Party’s primary for the 2020 presidential election wanted to take part – with the ambiguous slogan »Make America fucking awesome«. The idea of bringing some sex appeal into politics failed miserably. In 1997, in his song CU When You Get There, Coolio asked himself, “Does anyone really care if I ever die?” and predicted that no friends would come to his funeral. Hopefully that’s not the case. In the social media, at least, many fellow musicians condoled. Possibly the greatest basketball player of all time, LeBron James wrote that “Gangsta’s Paradise” is exactly where Coolio is now.
