To know me is to know I love the things I love. This might not be something you thought I loved but it's actually one of my favorite songs ever. It's an undeniably great song. And I got to give props to everyone involved in the rollout and production. This is sync licensing at one of its finest moments.
So, when I came up with this column I wanted to highlight the great music I've come across in my lifetime and give my unwarranted opinion on it. Yes, I'm going to talk about one of my favorite songs each month and tell you why they are my favorite songs. So welcome to "The Soundtrack of My Life Playlist - In Words."
The first song might have taken you by surprise, but if you know me, you know that I truly believe this is the greatest rap record of all time. No, I'm not a Hip-Hop purist who thinks the art died after the Golden Era. I do like big music, big moments, and music that puts me in a time and place. We will call it a time capsule with sauce.
This song takes me back to the Dangerous Minds soundtrack. Yes, the soundtrack. My mother was young when she had me. Not young enough that it's like shocking but young enough that shit we were doing was cool things when they were cool. She also collected VHS and cassettes like she was starting a Blockbuster or Sam Goody of her own. One of the movies I remember vividly was Dangerous Minds. And I remember my mom enjoyed it so much, she even got the soundtrack for us to listen to for her collection.
Now when I tell you, I appreciate the ease of streaming. I love the ability to also rewind a song but a click of a button and even being able to just tap where I want the song. Yes, those tools are still appreciated by people who had to wait for a cassette tape to physically rewind and try to guess the starting spot just to hear the song again. That was me. I remember I was about seven or eight and I would go outside to my mom's car and cut it on, yes just the battery, and I would replay that song over and over again.
It had everything a masterpiece and a classic record needs. The hook is BIG and catchy without it being overly annoying. The production is STILL good even in 2022 and that's obvious why - it's basically the same production from the song it was sampled from; who is none other than Stevie Wonder.
I always wondered why Stevie Wonder didn't get on the hook himself but after talking with my colleagues we agreed on two things. 1.) If the song featured Stevie Wonder on this production, it should be a Stevie record by default. If it was, it wouldn't have been as big of a moment for Coolio. 2.) The feature on the hook is L.V. (which stands for "Large Variety") did a phenomenal job. Stevie would've obviously done his thing but this made it a young people thing too. It was a little rawer. Either way, we won.
The song has this eerie lingering fear and mystery while Coolio really was spitting gospel. Gangsta's get to talk to God too. Overall, this song lives in infamy for me and my homie Rusty and Pony. Coolio is forever solid in my books.
Written by OG ILLA
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