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| | Home Notorious C.O.P.: The Inside Story of the Tupac, Biggie, and Jam Master Jay Investigations from NYPD's First "Hip-Hop Cop" | |
|  | |  | | | Notorious C.O.P.: The Inside Story of the Tupac, Biggie, and Jam Master Jay Investigations from NYPD's First "Hip-Hop Cop" | | | | | SKU:
2150855301 | | In Stock | | Availability:
Usually ships in 1-2 business days | | Only 2 left in stock, order soon! | | | | | | Throughout his career, Derrick Parker worked on some of the biggest criminal cases in rap history, from the shooting at Club New York, where Derrick personally escorted Jennifer Lopez to police headquarters, to the first shooting of Tupac Shakur.
Always straddling the fence between "po-po" and NYPD outsider, Derrick threatened police tradition to try to get the cases solved. He was the first detective to interview an informant offering a detailed account of Biggie Smalls's murder. He protected one of the only surviving eyewitnesses to the Jam Master Jay murder and knows the identity of the killers as well as the motivation behind the shooting.
Notorious C.O.P. reveals hip-hop crimes that never made the paper--like the robbing of Foxy Brown and the first Hot 97 shooting--and answers some lingering questions about murders that have remained unsolved. The book that both the NYPD and the hip-hop community don't want you to read, Notorious C.O.P. is the first insider look at the real links between crime and hip-hop and the inefficiencies that have left some of the most widely publicized murders in entertainment history unsolved.
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| | Product Details | | Author: | Derrick Parker | | Hardcover: | 320 pages | | Publisher: | St. Martin's Press | | Publication Date: | August 08, 2006 | | Language: | English | | ISBN: | 0312352514 | | Product Width: | 1.68 centimeters | | Product Height: | 2.56 centimeters | | Product Weight: | 1.0 pounds | | Package Length: | 9.0 inches | | Package Width: | 6.4 inches | | Package Height: | 1.1 inches | | Package Weight: | 1.35 pounds | | Average Customer Rating: |  based on 13 reviews |
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| | Customer Reviews | Average Customer Review: ( 13 customer reviews )
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7 of 8 found the following review helpful:
 NYPD Blue in a book Aug 30, 2006
By AI in The Village
Parker is a true character, and he and Diehl really make this book into a conversation between him and me (or you, when you read it). I appreciate the attention lavished on the old-school (Jay bookends the story) and the explanation of the continental divide that started in the 90s.
Parker really cares about the material -- both sides: the industry and the NYPD. Shocking (but in a good way) to hear such praise lavished on Bernie Karik.
Meantime, the pacing, the stories, the characters all make this a (sorry to use the cliche) page-turner. Can't wait until it's on the big or little screen (CSI: Adidas).
Two reasons I don't give it five stars: sad copy editing and underwhelming photos. Page-turners suffer when every page has at least one and often two no-excuse, let-me-read-that-again grammatical errors. And Parker, considering the interesting cops and music artists he's run with, ought to have a better array of photographs to complement the narrative. They'll fix this up for the second edition and get that fifth star.
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
 Power and corruption with a bullet Sep 21, 2006
By Lior Shliechkorn
Having read this book was quite more of an eye opener than I would have liked to think in regards to what takes place in the hip-hop realm. It is quite unfortunate to read about what goes on with many of the hip-hop artists from an insider and investigator's point of view. The self-perpetuating, and often self-fulfilling lethality of hip-hop is something one could only hope would one day cease to exist. The corruption within the police force...I suppose when one can genetically remove human nature then this could end that.
Overall, I tremendously enjoyed the book and would recommend it highly to people who want more perspective. The book takes on natural growth as Parker's outlines hip-hop's milestones that coincide with his development within the police force. Could the book be written better? Sure. The edits could have been more sensitive. However, I did not feel that anything was taken from the essence and message that Parker delivers. The truth is the truth no matter how it is written...we just won't even know it for sure.
10 of 13 found the following review helpful:
 Hip-Hop Cape Dec 28, 2006
By Shamontiel L. Vaughn
"I'm boycotting Amazon's site due to them approving of racist reviewers like Abe Krieger."
Pros: Someone recommended this book to me, and when he did, I asked him why in the world would he think I'd be interested in a book written by a cop, specifically because I've never made it a secret that I do NOT trust police and I'm extremely burnt out on the Biggie/Tupac's death considering I wasn't a fan of either of them. He told me that it talked about some interesting parts of hip hop crime and that there was only one chapter on Biggie and Tupac. Indeed, he was right. This book delved into the Jam Master Jay killing, along with the criminal issues of Murder Inc., Young Jeezy, Jay-Z, Diddy, 50 Cent, J. Lo, Lil' Kim, Foxxy Brown, Suge Knight, Snoop, Game, Dr. Dre, etc., in addition to the murders of Freaky Tah, Tupac, Biggie, and more. It was interesting to read about the details that I did not hear in these cases, such as cops handcuffing J. Lo to the top of the cage. That's a prime example of why I feel the way I feel about cops. Was it really necessary to do that? In that aspect, I can feel this book. There were many times when Parker complained about how the NYPD handled witnesses and innocent victims as though they were criminals, and he hit it right on the head by explaining that if the NYPD continues to be as domineering and violent as they have been to get people to talk, the streets and crime will continue to be on different playing fields with no intentions of a fair game.
Cons: 1) I'll admit that even as a professional copyeditor, I can look over errors. It's much safer to let at least two pairs of eyes read a manuscript than one. I'm hoping that's what happened with this book. No copyeditor will catch every single error, but about a quarter through this book, I was seeing so many errors to the point where I wondered was it copyedited at all? Commas out of place, words in the wrong order, past tense with present tense, and other glaring errors that should've been caught by even the most casual reader.
2) I was so tired of this man patting himself on the back. It was to the point where I thought he was molesting himself trying to talk about how great he was. He kept italicizing "I" and "me" as if we didn't understand that he deserved credit for something. Then, he kept on bragging about how cops were coming to him for help because he knew about hip hop. In mid-story, he'd start talking about how he knew something was wrong because he was so well-informed of the subject. Okay, we get it. If the man had just told the story and his actions, we could've come to the same conclusion without reading about you and your Hip-Hop Superman Cape.
3) Over and over again, he made idiotic statements that only cops can come to the conclusion of. The word "accidentally" and "Amadou Diallo" should NEVER be used in the same sentence. That was flat-out intended murder; nothing accidental about it. Even though he kept saying that hip-hop was not the full reason for violence, he kept throwing out all these random examples about how they equate, without ever mentioning the fact that poverty can play a great big hand in that. He uses examples like Kanye West to say that some rappers don't go down the same violent path, but what a drastic comparison. Kanye West didn't live nearly the life that Snoop Doggy Dogg did and there's no way anybody is going to tell me that the neighborhood and economic gain does not play a hand in the attitudes that many "gangsters" and drug dealers have in how they view life. This is not to say that it is right for them to be suicidal all the time, but I can't see how he couldn't understand that.
4) Throughout this whole book, he made it seem like he was one of the best cops and he seldomly talks about anything he does wrong. Even when he does, he blames it on his boss making him do it (ex. creating the hip-hop binder). He claims he's not a drinker but consistently talks about how he doesn't remember certain places he was at because he was so drunk and having fun. He talks about how other cops were scared but he was excited to be in drug-ridden, violent areas of Brooklyn. That in itself concerns me. To me, that's like saying that this cop viewed these areas like the board game Clue. He may find it amusing that he caught the killer, but none of these killers, witnesses, and children in the area find their everyday life "fun." It's very easy to criticize one's lifestyle when you don't have to live it on an everyday basis.
5) The man seems to have all of these answers about how the NYPD and LAPD should operate to be a more productive police force, but there was something he did in this book that only stamped the "Why I Hate Cops" attitude into just about everyone who mildly thought it before. There's a huge no-snitch policy in poverty-stricken areas (and quite a few middle-income areas too, the more the police act a fool)! Every single time he talked about issues within criminal cases, he gave out real names of witnesses, as well as ALL the information they gave. He talked about buying them food and how so many were cooperative in telling their stories. But the information he gave may not have all been accessible to the public. Some of the killers got off free, and I don't even understand why he put so much information about what the victims said in this book. Does he think all criminals don't read? All they need is ONE friend to say that their name was mentioned in the book, and there's a whole new set of problems for these witnesses. Victims and witnesses risk their lives telling stories about what has happened around them, and a cop documenting all the details in the book does not make anybody feel safer to go running to the cops. If anything, it makes them more hesitant. Just about every chapter, I was shaking my head and thinking "He can't help it. He's a cop. He doesn't understand how goofy it is to document this type of information." Even if it's someone who hasn't been in a situation where they have to be a witness, a cop repeatedly bothering you can work a person's nerves to the point where they don't want to help you simply because they don't like YOU. I went to a high school a block away from a police station and was harrassed ALL the time for unexplainable reasons, even as a reasonably innocent teenage girl. It's going to take more than the no-snitch rule to get people to help in these communities. Cops have to pretty much change their WHOLE attitude before a lot of these people will trust them.
6) He speculates on how hip-hop is becoming organized crime and how Jay-Z and 50 Cent have marketing deals. I don't even understand this comparison. It's not like these were dudes fresh off the street who walked in rapping and got gymshoes. They both had to fight their way to the top for these companies to even pay attention to them. Yes, they were both drug dealers IN THE PAST. So what? Is every marketing company supposed to look at their background, ignore the fact that they are legit now, and not do business with them? If that's the case, America wouldn't have survived this long. This country was created from thieves and slaveowners. If Wall Street can get rich, so can hip-hop. Parker talks about how most Fortune 500 companies wouldn't do business with people with this background. I hate to break it to this dude, but if companies weren't going to get rich off of criminals, America wouldn't be one of the most powerful countries that it is now off of FREE labor and the attitude "well, it's all in the past now."
As I figured, I didn't like this book and it didn't improve my opinion on cops, but when he wasn't talking about how great he was, I did find out some missing information that the media has screwed up in their daily reports.
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
This Isn't Some Video.....It Is The Real Thing Jan 02, 2007
By Bicycle Day
The reader can avoid about the opening 26 pages in Notorious C.O.P., as Derrick Parker mentions that he was the NYPD'S "hip-hop cop" so many times that it ruins what could have been a good introduction. But putting his ego aside - or at least dishing it out in smaller doses - the compelling book becomes hard to put down.
Parker took his affinity for the music industry and his concerns about its expanding linkage to organized crime to eventually spearhead a "hip-hop" unit. He is careful to explain that he was working for the safety of the artists - which was not always the goal of other police officials - while also taking steps to clean out the criminal element that made victims of the artists, neighborhoods and others who innocently got caught up in the drama.
What I found especially interesting is the normal, daily manipulations that you may hear about, but really don't see in print; the politics from his bosses that oftentimes came from a media-hungry and -savvy City Hall, the department jealousies, the ignorance & corruption, along with the bitter racism.
Parker's growing disenchantment with the NYPD reached a boiling point when he was brought up on bogus departmental charges due to others who wanted his "hip-hop" post for all the wrong reasons and when a superior ordered him to compile a dossier on hip-hop artists that had all the trappings of COINTELPRO-styled abuse.
The sensationalistic subtitle sets those chapters up for a letdown, and that is what happened in the cases of Tupac and Biggie. Parker really adds very little to what has been made public over the past decade, but does justify his findings with credible evidence.
Though retired from the NYPD, Parker's private investigation of the Jam Master Jay murder, his attempts to get his former colleagues engaged into a solid investigation with a prime witness and the games played that has now made solving the crime virtually impossible brings the book to an apt conclusion.
Organized crime has been in the music industry for many years; the original gansta was probably Frank Sinatra, who reportedly had some "assistance" in the early 1940s to get out of his contract with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra to start a solo recording/touring career.
Parker shows - through a text unfortunately marred with numerous typographical errors - that the vicious game in a multi-billion-dollar industry is still being played, but with oftentimes much greater tragic conclusions. And those with the power to help clean things up refuse to do so for a variety of reasons that are as much racial as they are political.
Notorious COP Dec 24, 2011
By Ebz30
Great Book. Well written book that gives great insight into the rap world's most infamous slayings. Will definitely be re-reading this book !
See all 13 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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