Because the song is a rewrite of his song "pastime paradise", Stevie made all the money from the song, which by the way, was never a hit.
Coolio died only being worth around a million dollars.
That's like a basic house in los Angeles (if that).
How much money does a blind man need?
Coolio should have been living like a king, but he was stuck on tour and concert appearances. No wonder he died at 59.
Coolio did not own his own residence when he died. He was couchsurfing at a friends house.
shareThat's so sad.
shareDo you have a source for that?
https://youtu.be/r7l0Rq9E8MY?t=2 vibes
I hope you're trolling...But I'll play along and explain a few things:
Stevie Wonder (sighted or otherwise) is a true musician. He writes, composes and sings. Hos songs have inspired millions (if not billions) His music transcends language, cultural and social barriers...made all the more amazing, given his actual condition..and (as far as I'm aware) he's never had to 'sample' the works (direct or otherwise) from any other artist. He sets standards (without the need to follow them)
Coolio was a rapper, who owes his entire career to everything mentioned in the previous paragraph. His 'one-hit-wonder' wasn't particularly innovative (nor revelatory in content) compared to his contemporaries. 'The Message' (by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious five) said everything (and more) than 'Gangsters Paradise' ever could (and had the decency to do it almost fifteen years earlier) Coolio never written anything that would resonate with audiences like Stevie Wonder does (and in all likelihood, Coolio probably couldn't play an instrument either?) Who on earth is *EVER* going to sample Coolio (he had little or no actual content of his own)
So, your (frankly, laughable) notion that somehow an actual 'creator' (Wonder) owed Coolio anything (especially given that a third of 'Gangsters Paradises' lyrics are attributed from 'Pastime Paradise') is pathetic.
Just as well that Stevie Wonder is black...otherwise (in all likelihood) you'd be pulling your trusty race card...in trying to (unsuccessfully) defend such a 'limited' talent (Coolio) being owed anything by a genuine musician (Wonder) who (in all actuality) gave him his career?
Rant over.
While I'm with you that Stevie Wonder is the more talented musician, and has a body of work that eclipses Coolio's few hits (he had a number of hits on the hip hop charts), I disagree about the sampling royalties.
I think Stevie Wonder, and all the creators of songs that are sampled deserve royalties for their original songs, but when their songs are sampled, to me that constitutes a new work. I know the courts have disagreed, but those rulings came a long time ago, when sampling was new, and I don't believe they were correctly made. I think in the future, they may well be overturned. However, I'm not concerned with legality here, only with "what's right." I think that when Coolio, or any musician, samples a song, and creates a completely new song from it, they own that song and don't owe anything to the person they sampled.
While someone may claim that "anyone can do that" with regards to building a hit around a sample, I'd counter that millions try, and only a few succeed. Anyone can play a piano, but only Stevie Wonder could create "Pastime Paradise." Anyone can sample "Pastime Paradise," but only Coolio can create "Gangsta's Paradise."
'Gangsters Paradise' samples (not only) the hook of 'Pastime Paradise', but also it's structure and lyrics (Hell, it's title alone is a 50% riff on Wonders title)
Take away Stevie Wonders contribution from 'Gangsters Paradise', and you're left with a (largely atrocious) rap song, bereft of music, structure, outright lyrics and even half a title)
Coolio didn't do anything (quote) "New" with the original (he just lazily rapped over it) Stevie wonder (or any other content creator) should always get the royalties for *their* creations.
Coolio (with his new found fame) had the chance to create something of his own...but even his follow-up stuff were usually just more (lazy) raps over sampled 'Hooks' (from genuine musicians)
That's what rap music is about-- taking bits and pieces of older songs and repurposing them into something new. The song's produce, Doug Rasheed, is the one who did the sampling, so he's responsible for lifting so much of Wonder's original song structure. Coolio wrote and performed the lyrics. It was the interpolation of Wonder's music over a hip hop beat, and the content and flow of Coolio's words, that made the song a hit. Otherwise, radio stations would have still been playing the Wonder original, but it had long since faded into obscurity, only showing up, infrequently, on the stodgiest of oldies stations. Once Coolio's song came out, Wonder's song also experienced a resurgence, from which he profited. For him to also get all the money from Coolio's song strikes me as unfair.
Compare Coolio to Frank Sinatra. Sinatra nearly never wrote any music or lyrics. He primarily sang covers of songs by others, for which he had to pay the standard statutory royalty fee. Does that seem reasonable, by your logic?
Coolio writes an entirely new song from a lyrical standpoint, and Doug Rasheed creates an entirely new rhythm section for a song, over which they layer elements of Stevie Wonder's song, and Wonder gets 100% of the profit, while Frank Sinatra (or Dean Martin, Nat King Cole, Michael Buble, whoever) sings someone else's words over someone else's music, and keeps all but 9 cents per sale (the current royalty fee)? Seems off to me, almost as if hip hop is unfairly singled out as the art form where it's ok to screw the creator.
Gangsters Paradise isn't (even by your own description) an entirely new song (hell, it's not even a song)
I've been listening to rap music since I was around 9 years old (back in 81-82) I don't need an explanation of what 'Rap Music' is (or isn't) Some of my favourite rappers have all had to pay royalties in the past (even the late, great. Biz Markie eventually had to...resulting in his follow-up album called 'All Samples Cleared') Christ, around 60% of all rappers (favourite or otherwise) owe their careers to the likes of James Brown or Bob James (actual content creators....who deserve every royalty they get)
Frank Sinatra was a crooner, who likely paid his writers (or the content creators) for *THEIR* work (not his own) Everytime he brought the house down with 'New York, New York'...Fred Ebb and John Candor were paid accordingly. Sinatra had his fingers in other pies too (so didn't just rely on the works of others)
Coolio, on the other hand...
Plus (as far as I'm aware?) Sinatra never released a track called 'Gangsters New York' in which he used the hook, structure and general lyrics of 'New York, New York', but added around 60% different lyrics (so I'm baffled as to your comparison of Sinatra recording recognised 'covers' to Coolio's limited would-be re-imaginings?)
Little point in going back and forth with this amigo (I need to sleep) I just (sincerely) hope you never have any original content of your own 'stolen, borrowed, sampled or "made new" by lesser talents than yourself (without renumerations for your own initial hard-work and creativity?)
Your well thought out post has logic and reason, but you can't reason a person out of a position they didn’t reason themselves into.
shareThe fact that Coolio took a song that wasn't a hit and made it into one of the biggest rap songs of all time is commendable.
If your reasoning held water, the award "best adapted screenplay" wouldn't exist, because apparently there's no talent to transforming someone else's work.
But you cannot just take things..m
sharewhen you steal a car, then repaint it, it's still the stolen car.
SAMPLING is so fucking lazy, it is beyond words. if you aren't creative enough to come up with your own stuff, maybe you don't have the talent to do what you want to.
You are greatly underestimating the difficulty of creating music with samples. You are also ignoring that bands like the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin built careers by creating music that was copied and changed no differently than if it had been sampled. Chuck Berry did the same. I already mentioned that most jazz vocal singers, like Sinatra as just one example, do nothing more than sing lyrics someone else wrote over music someone else wrote, and that is considered utterly original art. You are singling out rap because you don't understand it, or the way music in general is created.
sharehaving worked in recording studios for 20 years, written a lot of my own songs WITHOUT STEALING, I'm underestimating nothing. but detest lazy artists.
Chuck Berry and Led Zepplin never owned a SAMPLER when they did most of their music.
*I cant say led zep didnt use one in a studio for later albums.
I understand rap is extremely simple compared to other forms having written rap myself.
Maybe you can share some of your raps, for comparison to others? My experience, both as a creator and fan of music, is that many people think it's simple to create X kind of music, and don't realize that it isn't. Anyone can pick up a guitar and play, nearly no one can be Jimi Hendrix. Anyone can pick up a mic and rap, nearly no one can be LL Cool J. Anyone can loop a sample, nearly no one can be J Dilla.
Making a great song using samples is just as difficult as making a great song using instruments.
Also, just because an artist doesn't specifically sample another doesn't mean he isn't basing his work off another song. Chuck Berry copied the riff for Johnny B. Goode almost note for note from a Louis Jordan song. Just because he didn't sample it doesn't make a difference. He took something someone else had already played and made it his own.
nope. I only made two raps, that were both offensive against rap itself, am not proud and hate them and they are not online.
sure, everything is based off everything. ok whatever. I created my songs from MY head - things I heard in my mind, or created on keys experimenting, not copying others.
anyway, its okay that we agree to disagree.
One million only? I get it Wonder took the 100% of royalties, but dint he earns money from other stuff related to the song like a fan base which supported with he's new songs, TV commercials and fame in general, more jobs opportunities?
So far I understand this was one of the biggest song of all time I recently hear it and is pretty cool
reading the comments something stuck with me the original song wasn't a big hit Coolio took something already existed and make of that one incredibly successful song and that cant be ignored either call him untalented is like too harsh
Sadly after his few hits, he became a guy needing to be on the tour circuit to make money. Obviously that didn't pay well.