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Twenty five years ago this month, New Jack City opened to the public. The film, starring Wesley Snipes, Allen Payne, Ice-T, and Chris Rock, was Hollywood\u2019s first and arguably its most enduring cinematic glimpse at the crack cocaine epidemic. At a time when Operation Desert Storm dominated the news cycle, mainstream America was blindly stepping over the junkies, and reading past the inner-city murders in the obituaries.<\/p>\n
One man who observed it unfold before his eyes (and notebook) was journalist, author, and screenwriter Barry Michael Cooper. \u201cB.M.C.\u201d grew up in Harlem at a time when drug dealers were prominent community members\u2014part role-models, and part poison peddlers. A student of his surroundings, Cooper would eventually pen the definitive writings on crack\u2019s vice grip on its smokers, and the trade behind it\u2014first in print, and then in the script to New Jack City.<\/p>\n
Cooper\u2013who later wrote Above The Rim and Sugar Hill spoke with Ambrosia For Heads. More than just the screenwriter, the music journalist had a heavy hand in the soundtrack, and the seasoned Harlem native gave valuable direction to Snipes\u2019 portrayal of \u201cNino Brown\u201d and Payne\u2019s \u201cG-Money.\u201d As the conversation reveals, these are characters Cooper knew\u2014with stories he is still telling. This interview explores the true history behind New Jack City. The film began attached to one of cinema\u2019s most celebrated franchises, featuring a superstar lead before becoming what it is. Great actors and comedians were considered for the film, while others proved their greatness within it. Although he never sold drugs or led cartels, Barry Michael Cooper brilliantly sprinkled his bookish, street-smart youth into a film that defined Uptown in the 1980s\u2014Good versus Evil, and all the illusive smoke between. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n