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American screenwriter, journalist, and director Barry Michael Cooper breathed his last on Tuesday, January 21 at 66. His friend and former The Village Voice colleague Nelson George confirmed the news of his death on his substack. However, the cause of his demise is not immediately known. He was in Baltimore, Maryland at the time of his death.
Barry Michael Cooper is best known for writing the screenplays for his Harlem Trilogy, which is composed of New Jack City (1991), Sugar Hill (1994), and Above the Rim (1994). He also reportedly coined the term "New Jack Swing" in his book Teddy Riley's New Jack Swing: Harlem Gangsters Raise a Genius. The term has since been used to describe Teddy Riley's form of music in the 1980s.
Exploring the life and career of Barry Michael Cooper
Born in Harlem, New York, Barry Michael Cooper began his writing career as a music critic for the American publication The Village Voice. He went on to become an investigative officer for the New York City publication and remained in the position from 1980 to 1989.
During this time, he wrote his book Teddy Riley's New Jack Swing: Harlem Gangsters Raise a Genius on the life of the two-time Grammy winner. New Jack Swing defines the music of Teddy Riley from the 80s—a concoction of genres like hip-hop, dance-pop, and urban contemporary R&B.
As per Merriam-Webster's online dictionary, new jack swing is defined as:
"Pop music usually performed by Black musicians that combines elements of jazz, funk, rap, and rhythm and blues."
Barry Michael Cooper had written a piece called New Jack City Eats Its Young for The Village Voice in 1987, which reportedly caught the attention of Quincy Jones. As per The Hollywood Reporter, Quincy Jones hired him to rewrite the script for a movie featuring the life of drug kingpin Nicky Barnes.
Cooper made notable changes to the original script written by Thomas Lee Wright, famously changing the focus of the film from heroin to 'crack.' The film was named New Jack City. Made on a budget of $8 million, the movie debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in 1991 starring Wesley Snipes as Nino Brown. The movie made nearly $50 million at the box office and has become a cult classic today, as per Box Office Mojo.
In 1994, Barry Michael Cooper wrote his next film titled Sugar Hill. It was a crime drama starring Snipes and directed by Leon Ichaso. Although the movie performed well at the box office, it was slammed by critics who considered it a derivative of Cooper's first screenwriting job New Jack City.
However, his third movie, Above the Rim, received appreciation from critics and was released a few months after Sugar Hill. Adapted from a story by Benny Medina, the movie was directed by Jeff Pollock and starred Tupac Shakur, Duane Martin, Marlon Wayans, and Leon. The film achieved success at the box office and is considered Barry Michael Cooper's final film of the Harlem Trilogy.
Cooper's directorial debut came in 2005 when he released the film Blood on the Wall$. Cooper's final creative venture was the 2017 Netflix adaptation of Spike Lee’s She’s Gotta Have It. In addition to working as a producer for the show, Barry Michael Cooper also wrote three episodes.
Other notable works of Barry Michael Cooper include a 2005 blog called Hooked on the American Dream. In 2011, he also published a collection of essays from the 1980s called Hooked on the American Dream, Vol. 1: New Jack City Eats Its Young. During his later years, Michael Cooper also worked as a contributor to the Huffington Post.
