Gangsta's Paradise

This is a reference to the 23rd Psalm in the Bible.

https://prnt.sc/exV8DKz7mrgn

It is a term frequently used by a certain group of people in Hip Hop.

Coolio is saying he realizes that that there is nothing left for him in life. Because he has been messing around, wasting his life and doing nothing productive for so long that even the one person, his mother, that always believes he’s going to be successful and thinks nothing but the best of him, has given up hope on him. She was the last person who would ever give up on her son, but his behavior and lifestyle means that he’s beyond saving – likely leading only to him being behind bars or buried six feet underground.

Now that he has disappointed his mother and torn his relationship with her, Coolio feels a sense of emptiness. He feels abandoned by his own family and all the people who have ever loved him. He no longer has anything in his life to make him feel happy.

Leading on from the last line, his justification for his actions, although he and his mother recognise he’s beyond saving, is that who provoked his reaction never went unjustified.

Being “treated like a ‘punk’” means a lot of things. It could mean that he got crossed or a gun pointed at his face or he got snitched on. At least one of those things deserve immediate retaliation of certain death to the other party.

He has the mentality, because of his lifestyle and environment, that you can’t be pushed around when someone tests you. If someone over steps their boundaries or acts out of line, then there are consequences. This implies he lives around people that are criminals and do bad deeds – either hangs out with them or they are the type of people in his neighbourhood.

There was always a reason for him getting into fights and dealing with the situation. To survive where he’s from, it was necessary to put people in their place if they behaved in a way which is asking for trouble.

When a criminal kills someone, and the dead body is found, the police get informed, and they come to the “scene of the crime” as they say, and try to find out who did it. They do a number of things to try and find out what happened, depending on the case. It is not clear to the general public how they operate, but this is one thing specifically that they do in a time like this.

And that is the iconic “draw a line of chalk or special tape around the entire body”. They use chalk if the body is on the street, concrete, or something similar to that. And tape if the body is on the ground, grass or something like that. The outline of the chalk or tape, provides context for photographs of the crime scene, and assists investigators in preserving the evidence.

Modern investigators almost never have to use chalk or tape as outlines at crime scenes anymore. But because of music, visual arts, literature, or anything in pop culture that has to do with a crime investigation by the police, people still think that to this day.

https://prnt.sc/ohj56fQVgtn5

Loc is:

• Something Crips call each other • A Crip term meaning crazy, wild, or insane • The leader (OG) of a particular set

He’s saying he’s got to take control, because something illegitimate is going on.

Gangsta’s Paradise is like a sand castle that crumbles easily. Some deluded themselves with the glories of the crime and dedicate their lives to it, but it is all in vain. A life of crime is short, a waste of life.

Both the chorus and refrain, which L.V. sings, are interpolations of Stevie Wonder’s track “Pastime Paradise”, whose instrumental is also interpolated for this track.

Is called a "state" is a "street state". Hood is used in slang to mean street.

TV tends to focus on and idolize the wealthy and famous are constantly being idolized, while they ignore the harsh realities of life. It gives him unrealistic expectations and has him chasing “The American Dream"—which he acknowledges here is only a dream, and a foolish one.

An “educated fool” is someone who has been taught useless things, or misled to believe false things. It’s a possible double meaning because “fool” can also be used as a general term to refer to you or someone else in a similar context to his earlier use of “loc” from the first verse:

Fool, I’m the kinda G the little homies wanna be like

Furthermore, “educated fool” may be called an oxymoron.

It could also mean he’s gone through the mandatory education system but hasn’t really gotten much out of it and finds the involvement in the streets with making money more appealing and too tempting to resist. Likely because of the false sense of reality TV shows and movies gave him.

Furthermore, the line could mean that even though one is educated there is much more to learn.

A MAC-10 machine pistol.

In the stream option, he actually says Mac-11. The option is a different version, but I felt it should be noted

In other words: I’m a Crip who’s involved in gang warfare.

Breakdown: Loc' is Los Angeles street slang meaning being an active Crip, or a crazy (Loco) Crip-member. To set trip means to represent ones own gang, often violently. Banger refers to gangbanger, which is somebody who’s involved in violent conflict with rival gangs.

It’s worth noting that Coolio himself is Crip affiliated.

This could mean one of two things, given the context:

1) His homies have all been killed, and Coolio has developed a nihilistic outlook on life as a result that has lead him to be extremely quick to turn to violence if even slightly provoked.

or

2) His fellow Crips are down to engage in violence if Coolio calls upon them to, so one would be wise to not provoke Coolio, lest he tell his homies to go kill you.

In stark contrast to the main verses of the song, where Coolio seems to revel in the drugs and gang violence embedded in his culture, LV realizes that through the conflicts and shootings, everybody loses. Instead of fighting against each other, we should work as members of a community who watch and care for each other, in order to create better lives for us all.

In the wise words of Tupac,

We gotta start making changes Learn to see me as a brother instead of two distant strangers

This, along with the hook is a spin-off of the hook from Stevie Wonder’s “Pastime Paradise” rewritten in L.V.’s own words.

Description of the days pass event.

He says about how some people are aware of something and the rest just don't care. Not even trying to do what they couldn't.

“They” (teachers, cops, politicians, religious leaders, society in general, take your pick) say that Coolio – a stand-in for all gang bangers who turned to a life of crime after being failed by the system since the moment they were born – needs to learn to lead a legitimate life as a productive, law-abiding citizen, but if they don’t understand the circumstances he was born into, raised in, and still lives in, how can they possibly help him, let alone expect him to do so himself?

Coolio is alluding to his own personal connection to these violent acts; he sees himself to be as much a part of the systemic violence as the physical properties of the crime.

Focus on the smoke specifically may be a reference to the temporal nature of his existence, comparing his circumstances to the smoke which vanishes after a short time.

Coolio sees himself in the smoke because he knows his time is coming sooner or later, just like the guy he just offed.

G: OG

Much of the time, Living In the Ghetto, Kids would be out-and-about very late at night, to the point – where in Many Cities they have a curfew for people under 18 years old.

Presenting as the only alternatives complete success or complete ruin

Life in the streets is very dangerous. Death strikes so unexpectedly because of the heavy gangs and the high crime rates. The young age of 24 illustrates how people die because of unnatural factors as a result of their lifestyle. Coolio is living in such dangerous conditions that he is unsure whether he will even survive another year.

In 2Pac’s song “Pain” from 1994 (a year before this song), 2Pac similarly ended his first verse with the question “Will I live to be 23?”