Forget the situation, they got me facing I can't live a normal life, I was raised by the state So I gotta be down with the 'hood team

This would lead me to believe that Coolio's belief system is that he has no real choice but to be a gangsta, without a way out, due to being raised by the state.

Kids growing up in similar situations, will they believe what Coolio is preaching (after all, Coolio's the kinda G that little homie's wanna be like) validly?

In reality, Coolio got out (became a rapper instead of a legitimate gangsta) - and it is only a pop song - but Coolio got all testy when Weird Al parodized his song, so he must feel there's something to it.

what a great topic of discussion

What year is this?

Yeah, gotta keep that pop street cred up after cashing the Weird Al royalty checks.

One day I was home sick from school, and I saw Coolio on some talk show talking about his snowglobe collection.

He lost his street cred that day.

Coolio never had street cred. The closest he came was his guest role in the Maad Circle.

= J

You too can rip off Stevie Wonder and get out of the ghetto.

i don't know, the lyrics to most rap from the 1990's are the same few words and the same few subjects

I just heard the Stevie Wonder song Coolio sampled for "Gangsta's Paradise" the other day, embarrassingly for the first time ever. I was like, "What the hell?!" Guess I should have known all along that any successful rap song is bound to be a ripoff of an older song.

Shame on you. As atonement, go out and buy Stevie's "Songs in the Key of Life" (which does include "Pastime Paradise") and listen to it religiously. It's pretty much the greatest album ever made. Self-indulgent for a double-album? Which double-album isn't? It's the stuff AWESOME is made of.

Now if you will excuse me, I'm off to go see Apollo 13 tonight and have you seen that new show Friends? OMG it's soooooo funny!!

What a stupid show. It will get canceled and those actors will never be heard of again.

Well you got that part right.

Definitely not true. I guess A Tribe Called Quest, 2Pac, Notorious BIG, Common, Ice Cube, Public Enemy, Naughty By Nature, Brand Nubian, De La Soul and countless other rappers in the 90's had nothing to say.

Rap in the 90s is the last great time period for hip hop. This decade has been poor at best when it comes to lyricism and keeping the tone set by those groups from the 90s and prior. I remember seeing Sugarhill Gang in concert in Hoboken, NJ in 97 and then hanging out with them after the show thinking how great hip hop was at the time. Now we have people believing that Little Wayne is the best thing going and that he is the greatest hip hop artist ever. But when I mention EPMD, Gangstarr, 3rd Bass or even the Geto Boys I get a blank stare. It is a sad state of affairs.

I had never heard the original either.

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Pretty damn cool.

Yeah I'd say until around 97-98 and then Master P and that watered down mess came along and set a trend that really hasn't stopped.

It really is a bummer about that guy from Nirvana, isn't it?

Lest we forget the lyrics from Coolio that rivaled Shakespeare "Slide, slide, slippity slide, living in the city is do or die"

I'm not sure if I believe that Coolio ever wanted people to think he was "gangsta". I'm more inclined to think that he wrote that song specifically for the movie "Dangerous Minds" and not for his gangster image. He was a crackhead like Tyrone Biggums from what I heard.

I think back to when I first started working at Best Buy (1999) and seeing all the No Limit releases and their cheesy covers.

it's fun to listen to, but 90's rap is either gangsta, smoking dope, demeaning women or we're being oppressed with "N" being repeated over and over. i have a slacker station for hip hop and rap and i don't remember Run DMC or Kanye West songs being nothing but cursing. i haven't listened to all of them, but that's what it seems like.

and a lot of it i make sure i'm alone when i listen to it because i don't want my son to hear it, or i'm paranoid my headphones will let people around me hear what i'm listening to. i have a 21 month old son that we turn VH1 on for and he can recognize songs and has some favorites, but my wife and i are not going to play most of the 90's stuff on the radio so he can hear. he's going to have to wait until 6th grade or so.

I don't completely agree with this. Most of the artists I mentioned were not gangsta rappers.A Tribe Called Quest, Common, Nas, Gang Starr, Outkast, Wu Tang Clan and so many others didn't do have any of that stuff in their music. Using the n word you will find that is going to be used in pretty much the majority of rap. That's just the way it is.

I am about as huge of a hip hop fan as you will find and I was in high school, college during this time and the only rappers that did talked about smoking and demeaning women were West coast rappers or Redman or something like that. The early to mid 90's were about as good as it gets for hip hop music.

is clear al-bundy hasn't heard any native tongues stuff or he would know that it is not the case at all.

When I opened this I thought it was going to be a 10-year bump.

It is an odd discussion for 2009 isn't it?

I always thought he said he was raised by the street. Learn something new every day.