Barry Michael Cooper, an analytical reporter-turned-screenwriter known for the movies” New Jack City”,” Above the Rim” and” Sugar Hill”, has died.
A Maryland Office of the Chief Medical Examiner spokeswoman who confirmed Cooper’s death on Tuesday. More information about his suicide, including a cause of death, were not immediately available. He was 66.
Matthew J. Cooper, the writer’s child, shared announcement of his father’s dying on social media Thursday. On , Instagram , the young Cooper lauded his parents as an “author of compassion”, an “icon” and a” very hero”.
” ] He] single handedly shifted an entire culture. was a silent story, but now everyone is aware of your glory. Admired]by ] many. Described by very few, Matthew Cooper wrote in a photo of himself hugging his father. ” Proud of you then. Proud of you now. Will never be another”.
Writer Nelson George, one of Barry Cooper’s blogger peers, mourned the writer’s dying on , Substack. ” Barry helped identify music culture in the ‘ 80s and ‘ 90s”, George , wrote Wednesday, citing Cooper’s in-depth monitoring on , music , and the split illness.
” Though he lived much of the last years of his life in Baltimore, he was Harlem to his core”, George added.
Cooper’s reading career began in the 1980s when he served as a song writer for the Village Voice, the storied and Pulitzer Prize-winning New York alt-weekly. As a journalist the Harlem native gained notoriety for articles including ,” Teddy Riley’s New Jack Swing”  , and the 1987 cover story ,” Kids Killing Kids: New Jack City Eats Its Young” . , The second, which described Detroit’s violent drug-trade scene in gory detail, would later propel Cooper into the orbit of Hollywood and serve as the basis of his” Harlem trilogy”.
Two weeks later, I flew in first-class to Hollywood to match with Quincy Jones. My mind was great”, Cooper told , the Voice in 2007.
Jones,  , the late and renowned starmaker,  , tasked Cooper with rewriting a story about 1970s drug king Nicky Barnes. Cooper’s version of the script, co-written by Thomas Lee Wright, eventually evolved into the 1991 film ,” New Jack City” , , directed by Mario Van Peebles. The movie starred Borders, Wesley Snipes, Ice-T, Allen Payne and Chris Rock.
According to Times writer Mikael Wood ,” New Jack City” helped set the stage for more movies about inner-city living featuring performers in lead roles. Its private box office success helped pave the way for more films about inner-city career.
Cooper and Snipes would later reunite for 1994 ‘s ,” Sugar Hill” , , which starred the latter as a drug dealer seeking to escape the violent lifestyle. Directed by Leon Ichaso,” Sugar Hill” likewise starred Michael Wright, Theresa Randle and Clarence Williams III.
” Above the Rim”, Cooper’s second film, premiered in 1994 and starred Duane Martin, Leon, Tonya Pinkins, Bernie Mac and also secured singer Tupac Shakur amid the top of his reputation. The film, directed by” Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” co-creator Jeff Pollack, centered on an budding sports legend played by Martin.
In the decades after his Harlem series, Cooper’s output relatively came to a screeching end. He claimed to the Voice in 2007 that he had been “getting but high on myself that I turned down jobs” and that he had difficulty breaking the law and finding job.
He resumed his job in 2005 as a poet, producer and director for the online line” Blood on the Walls$”, which reunited him with” Sugar Hill” sun Wright. The line followed a once-in-demand Hollywood manufacturer. Additionally in the 2010s, Cooper worked on the short” Guilt…” and was a co-writer on the video game” NBA 2K16″, according to IMDb.
Cooper returned to mainstream Hollywood when he joined Netflix ‘s ,” She’s Gotta Have It” , , a 2017 TV reboot based on director Spike Lee’s 1986 film debut. The line, created by Lee, starred DeWanda Wise, Anthony Ramos, Lyriq Bent and Cleo Anthony. The movie’s two conditions are also available to stream on Netflix. Cooper was a member of the producing staff and co-wrote three episodes.
” Until next day. Harlem’s finest”, Cooper’s child concluded in his Instagram gift.
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