Lv + biography + larry sanders

One day, Doug Rasheed pulled out his copy of Stevie Wonder's double-album Songs In The Key Of Life and cut a sample from Pastime Paradise, a bleak and anxious track that was one of the first songs to replace an orchestra with synthesized strings. Rasheed added a crunching beat and a menacing synth bass, then took the track to singer Larry "LV" Sanders, who laid down a vocal for the chorus.

That whole choir that you hear was actually me - I did all the parts from soprano down to tenor to the bass. LV wanted a rapper to appear on the track, and offered it to his friend Prodeje, who declined.

Lv + biography + larry sanders: Larry J. Sanders (born

Then Coolio overheard it. Mesmerised, he started writing lyrics straight away. I was an instrument and the song was the entity. It wrote itself. Coolio was 30 at the time the song was written, but the narrator is 23 and he doesn't know if he'll live to see He was "raised by the street", immersed a life of crime and retribution. If anyone crosses him, they'll end up "lined in chalk".

But the story never glorifies the gangster lifestyle. The narrator prays every night, aware that he's trapped. In the final verse, he accuses the system of letting him down. It's a bleak story. One that could only have been told with the perspective Coolio gained from his teenage years. And the rapper bristled when his song was lumped in with the so-called "gangster rap" scene.

When I make references [to the gangster lifestyle], I'm trying to get kids' attention using language they want to hear. I'm just trying to get a better understanding of myself and a better understanding of other people. Gangsta's Paradise was a stark departure from the feel-good funk of Coolio's first album and, at first, his record label weren't sure what to make of it.

He said, 'It sounds pretty good - I think it would make a good album cut. Incensed, the star's manager decided to shop the song around to movie studios. It nearly ended up on the soundtrack to the Will Smith film Bad Boys, but was eventually placed in the Disney movie Dangerous Minds - the true story of a former Marine who turns around a troubled inner-city high school by teaching them poetry and Bob Dylan lyrics.

A lukewarm retread of Dead Poets Society, it was allegedly testing badly with audiences until Coolio's song started getting played on MTV. The video, like the film, starred Michelle Pfeiffer, who went face-to-face with Coolio as a camera spun around them. We had no problems. Michelle Pfieffer and Coolio on the set of the Gangsta's Paradise video. It's not that many people that care about each other [in real life].

There was only one problem: Stevie Wonder hadn't cleared the sample. I'm not letting my song be used in some gangster song,'" the star recalled. Luckily, Coolio's then-wife Josefa Salinas, knew Wonder's brother. His only stipulation was that I had to take the curse words out. That edit undoubtedly changed Coolio's life. A profane version of Gangsta's Paradise would never have been played on pop radio, or entered heavy rotation on MTV.

When it hit number one, it opened up new possibilities for hip-hop It lost the allure of the forbidden when you mum started singing along. Coolio was ambivalent about the song too, often lamenting how its success overshadowed his other work. In recent years, however, the musician came to appreciate the song's legacy, and his role in hip-hop history.

If you have a story suggestion email entertainment. Image source, Getty Images. By Mark Savage. He is best known for his collaboration with rapper Coolio on the single " Gangsta's Paradise ". He has released five solo albums and was a member of the gangsta rap group South Central Cartel since it formed, usually singing the choruses. This article about an American musician is a stub.

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Lv + biography + larry sanders: Larry Sanders (politician) (born ),

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Lv + biography + larry sanders: Larry J. Sanders, known

Find sources: "L. Tommy Boy Loud P-Vine. Musical artist. Discography [ edit ]. Studio albums [ edit ]. Collaboration albums [ edit ]. Compilation albums [ edit ]. Singles [ edit ]. As featured artist [ edit ]. References [ edit ]. Retrieved Retrieved December 4, But California police call him a gang member". NBC News. Hung Medien.

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