Screenwriter Barry Michael Cooper died on Jan 22; he was somewhere in his mid-60s. Cooper was best known for his 1990s "Harlem Trilogy" of films, New Jack City, Sugar Hill, and Above the Rim. He grew up in Harlem (though he was born in Washington Heights and later moved to Baltimore). He started his career writing for The Village Voice; Quincy Jones spotted his work and convinced him to write his first movie, New Jack City. In addition to his three Harlem films, Cooper wrote Blood on the Wall$ (which he also directed), the TV series She’s Gotta Have It, and several shorts and TV-movies. He also wrote a blog, Hooked on the American Dream, and contributed to the Huffington Post. Cooper also named New Jack Swing, the hip hop/dance-pop/R&B fusion. “New jack means two things,” Cooper said. “My brother used the term a lot. I’d never heard the term before. He used to say, ‘Yeah, that kid is a new jack.’ I said, ‘What does that mean?’ He said, ‘You know, someone who’s new to the game and frontin’.’ It’s almost a derogatory term — almost like a rookie or someone who was frontin’. Then I heard a song by Grandmaster Caz and he used a line about this guy who was ‘a new jack clown.’ I took the phrase and wanted to flip it.”
Related Posts
