The song title itself holds a powerful message, as it seems to tackle the issue that gang life is being glorified with many people wishing to be part of a gang as it seems ‘cool’ in today’s society. Early gangs consisted of family members and neighbourhood friends who involved themselves in limited criminal activities designed to perpetrate a “tough guy” image and to provide an easy means of obtaining money. It can be argued that often people are forced into having to carry out criminal acts, often to get money to feed themselves so maybe other classes which are defined in society should try to gain a better understanding of what these people in gangs are going through. This is quite a bold definition and won’t always apply to all cases. However, ‘Gangsta’s Paradise’ tries to reveal the truth about this.Ī gang member is defined as “any person who actively participates in any gang with knowledge that its members engage in or have engaged in a pattern of criminal gang activity, and who wilfully promotes, furthers, or assists in any felonious criminal conduct by members of that gang.” (California Penal Code Section 1 86.22). Unfortunately, gangs are often feared and cast out by society due to all the negative connotations associated with them such as high levels of violence. The song overall suggests that people don’t tend to choose that particular lifestyle but more that they are born into it and have little choice to get away from it ‘Keep spending most our lives living in a gangsta’s paradise’ being probably the best-known line of the song and representing this point. This really helps to outline how there is a divide between social classes within society. It is a good example of a song representing social class as an aspect of identity through the performance as the lyrics and theme focus heavily on the gangster lifestyle and help to send across a message about the difficulties associated with this social class.
The song was released in conjunction with the 1995 movie ‘Dangerous Minds’. ‘Gangsta’s Paradise’ was released in august 1995 and is performed by Coolio, featuring Larry Sanders on the main hook.
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