Barry Michael Cooper, the screenwriter behind the influential “Harlem Trilogy” of films New Jack City, Sugar Hill and Above the Rim and the man who coined the term New Jack Swing, has died. He was 66.

Prior to his screenwriting success in the 1990s, Cooper was a music critic for The Village Voice between 1980 and 1989. He also penned the piece “Teddy Riley’s New Jack Swing: Harlem Gangsters ...

He was 66. In Black pop cultural circles, Cooper was known for having coined the phrase “new jack swing” in a 1988 profile for “The Village Voice” on Teddy Riley. The sound would come to define that ...

Before his screenwriting career, Cooper’s journalist bylines included Spin Magazine, as well as music criticism. While at The Village Voice, he wrote a piece titled “Teddy Riley’s New Jack ...

My head was huge,” Cooper told the Voice in 2007. Jones, the late and legendary starmaker ... eventually evolved into the 1991 film "New Jack City," directed by Mario Van Peebles. The film starred ...

My head was huge,” Cooper told the Voice in 2007. Kyle (Duane Martin ... eventually evolved into the 1991 film “New Jack City,” directed by Mario Van Peebles. The film starred Van Peebles ...