January 24, 2025
The author and producer behind basic Black movies like “New Jack Metropolis” and “Above the Rim” handed away at age 66.
Barry Michael Cooper, the prolific author and producer behind the basic Harlem trilogy New Jack Metropolis, Sugar Hill, and Above the Rim, died at age 66.
Cooper died in Baltimore, Maryland, on Tuesday, a consultant for Spike Lee confirmed. The pair final labored collectively on the sequence adaption of Lee’s movie debut, She’s Gotta Have It, Selection studies. Cooper produced each seasons and wrote three episodes.
A Harlem native, Cooper was used to working alongside the greats after making his screenwriting debut with Mario Van Peebles on New Jack Metropolis, a cult basic movie he co-wrote with Thomas Lee Wright. The movie, which starred Wesley Snipes, Ice-T, and Chris Rock, marked a serious success for Cooper after his shift from investigative reporting at The Village Voice, the place he penned the impactful 1989 cowl story “Children Killing Children: New Jack Metropolis Eats Its Younger,” which delved into the drug struggle in Detroit.
“Barry helped outline popular culture within the ‘80s and ‘90s together with his early reporting on crack, by naming Teddy Riley’s sound ‘new jack swing’ and writing star autos for Wesley Snipes (New Jack Metropolis, Sugar Hill) and Tupac Shakur (Above the Rim],” author and buddy Nelson George wrote about Cooper in a Substack publish. “Although he lived a lot of the final many years in Baltimore, he was Harlem to his core.”
Dubbed a “Harlem trilogy,” Cooper’s inception into the movie business helped amplify Black onscreen abilities like Snipes and Ice-T, who performed a ruthless gang chief and hardened cop in New Jack Metropolis, respectively, and a younger Rock who was getting his footing in appearing whereas persevering with his rise as a standup comedian. Snipes returned for Sugar Hill in 1994, the identical 12 months Cooper launched Above the Rim, which starred Leon, Tupac Shakur, Duane Martin, and Marlon Wayans.
Cooper made his directorial debut in 2005 with Blood on the Wall$, a low-budget net sequence a few tv producer’s descent right into a downward spiral. 2008, he produced the Larry Davis episode for season 3 of American Gangster. His Harlem upbringing served as inspiration for a lot of his work in movie and tv.
Cooper’s demise got here shortly after his most up-to-date Instagram publish on MLK Day, wherein he paid homage to the civil rights icon and his basic movie New Jack Metropolis.
“15 January 2025 – Dr. MLK Day – “Am I My Brother’s Keeper? – Baltimore, MD,” he captioned his remaining shared picture of himself.
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