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Hip-Hop Community Mourns Death of Influential Journalist & Screenwriter Barry Michael Cooper

Barry Michael Cooper, who invented the term 'New Jack Swing' and wrote the scripts for 'New Jack City', 'Above the Rim', and 'Sugar Hill,’ has died.

Barry Michael Cooper, the journalist who coined the term “New Jack Swing” to describe the music Teddy Riley was making during the ’80s and wrote the screenplays for influential movies like N ew Jack City featuring Wesley Snipes’ iconic role as Nino Brown, Above the Rim starring 2Pac in one of his most memorable roles as street hustler Birdie, and Sugar Hill(also starring Snipes) passed away Tuesday (Jan. 22). Michael A. Gonzales, who co-wrote the important Bring The Noise: A Guide to Rap Music and Hip-Hop Culture with Havelock Nelson, tweeted out the Village Voice article profiling Teddy Riley where the term New Jack Swing was invented and referred to Cooper as one of his “main inspirations.” “His Harlem trilogy of flicks, New Jack City, Sugar Hill and Above The Rim were beyond influential in terms of Hip Hop cinema, they literally changed the game,” he said.

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