Gangsta’s Paradise Medieval Remix 1️⃣6️⃣

Coolio x Beedle the Bardcore

Song	Gangsta’s Paradise	GP – Medieval Bardcore Version
Year	October 2, 1995	July 12, 2020
BPM	80	80
Part	Acapella	Instrumental

Final Cut

As I browse YouTube from time to time, I keep seeing these recommendations for 1 hour medieval Eminem! I’ve been actually scared to click on those. Then suddenly I saw one for Gangsta’s Paradise! So I said “alright, I gotta give that one a listen.” Since my kiddo’s have been playing Coolio’s infamous track in decent rotation over the past few weeks, perhaps this could be inspiration for my next mix. Much to my surprise, this was only an instrumental track. I searched for a mix featuring Coolio’s vocals, but what on earth?! I couldn’t find one.

I remembered that I had downloaded Coolio’s re-recording of his timeless track. In 2010 he went back into the Studio with L.V. to release another rendition of this song. It was apparently for a promotion of new movie released around that time, and to celebrate the 15-year anniversary of the original release.

While I could have used the original acapella, I chose these 2010 re-recorded vocals to give this mix a fresh coat of paint! If you’re gonna remix it, why not give it some extra flare? I believe that most people don’t know about the re-recording and if they did, they wouldn’t consider using it. To be honest, it’s shockingly different, and with all due respect to Coolio it doesn’t hold up at all to the 1995 award winning hit. Nonetheless, he got to add nuances and emotions after adding 15-years’ experience and a better understanding of his masterpiece. So it begs the question, why try to make it sound exactly the same? I feel he did take that attitude into the studio and clearly changed up the tone! And L.V. also put a slight twist on it, especially on the third round of each chorus, you can hear his embellishments. But the obvious lesson here is if you’re going to redo something that is already a monumental classic, then you better come with it, or else just leave it be. If fans who lived through the song’s original release were to come across the 2010 remake, I believe they would be greatly disappointed.

To arrange the tracks, I had to extend Beetle’s instrumental to bring it up to full time and account for the extended chorus and bridge segments. I also cut and rearranged a few segments to let Coolio’s vocals shine. He does three verses, the first two are 12 bars and the final verse is 8 bars, for a total of 32. On Beetle’s original arrangement, he brings in the flute when Coolio hits his 4th bar which I felt was too early, so I delayed it to start on the 8th bar, to build up for the first chorus.

This track surprisingly only took a few hours, with three iterations. I truly love this instrumental remake, so big shoutout to Beedle the Bardcore for sharing his talents. It’s perfectly on key and tempo to the original.

In order to make this mash, I had to use the following software tools:

1. My HP laptop running Windows 11.
2. My Google Chrome browser back in 2010 to purchase the Coolio tracks from eMusic.com.
3. Nero Downloader Ultimate to convert the instrumental track from YouTube to MP3.
4. Magix ACID 11 to arrange, Beatmap and mix all the audio files.

Fun Though: It’s my belief that if YouTube came out in 1990, then Gangsta’s Paradise would have been the first vid to hit a billion views. No doubt, right? If not this track, then no question in the same release year (1995), One Sweet Day could have taken the billion crown.