After chronicling the crack boom of the 1980s as an investigative reporter, he had a high-profile but brief second career in Hollywood.

There is no discussion of 1990s-era Black movies without films written by Barry Michael Cooper, the Harlem, New York, born-and-raised journalist turned screenwriter who penned “New Jack City,” “Sugar Hill,” and “Above The Rim.” Cooper, who moved to Baltimore in the mid 1980s, passed away on January 21, 2025. He was 66.