It’s this: More than any other pioneering gangster or “reality” rapper ... on the new collection for good reason--it isn’t a rap song, and it was recorded with his rock band Body Count ...

Since then, hip-hop has spawned a mass of subgenres – gangsta rap, crunk and trap among them. Hundreds of hip-hop songs deserve recognition for their meaning and their beats. But for now ...

As the beat and lyrics of the 1995 hit song “Gangsta’s Paradise” came together, Coolio knew he had struck gold. The unlikely meshing of gospel and rap, spine-chilling lyrics and clever sampl ...

And the rapper bristled when his song was lumped in with the so-called "gangster rap" scene. "I'm trying to get rid of that jacket that's been put on my back - that I'm a gangsta rapper," he said ...

The song stayed on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for three weeks, he won a Grammy for best rap solo performance and Weird Al Yankovic even did a cover of it called “Amish Paradise.” ...

Coolio did so with “Gangsta’s Paradise.” The second factor is the song was released as a part of the soundtrack for the Disney film, Dangerous Minds, making it a hit among hip-hop fans ...

In an interview with MOJO magazine, he said: "We have stopped them being used to promote violence or abuse, during the heyday of gangster rap when someone wanted to sample it in a song we thought ...

Gangster rap was everywhere you went ... HT: “Passin’ Me By” is one of your most widely-known songs, and also widely-sampled. How do you guys feel about all these other artists sampling ...