


1 in the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Austria, Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, Scotland and Zimbabwe, just to name a few. The song took off with international audiences as well, reaching No. Both albums it appeared on-first the Dangerous Minds soundtrack and then his own sophomore album Gangsta’s Paradise-were quickly certified multi-platinum, while the single itself sold over three million copies on its own. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop charts, became the best-selling single of 1995 across all genres, and helped to mainstream hip-hop in previously uncharted ways. More than just a flash-in-the-pan genre hit, "Gangsta’s Paradise" hit No. However, soon enough that "everybody" he was excited to share his new song with would substantially grow to include millions and millions of music fans around the world, as "Gangsta’s Paradise" became a chart-topping, multi-platinum global hit throughout the fall/winter of 1995 and well into the summer of 1996. To be clear, the "everybody" Coolio was initially thinking of was just his record label and his friends-"My day ones and my homies that I trusted to give me a real opinion," he states. "I was so excited about sharing it with everybody."

"My first thought when I listened back to the demo of ‘Gangsta’s Paradise’ was ‘Man, the hood’s gonna love this shit,'" recollects Coolio.
