Derrick Parker, the previous NYPD detective generally known as the “Hip-Hop Cop” for his work within the metropolis’s rap-related intelligence unit within the Nineties, has died.
He was 65.
His brother, Ralph, advised Fox Information Digital Monday he died unexpectedly on July 24 at a hospital in New York’s Nassau County. He didn’t give a trigger.
A funeral is scheduled for Thursday on the J Foster Phillips Funeral House in Jamaica, New York.
Derrick J. Parker was the previous head of the NYPD’s rap intelligence unit when town’s hip-hop scene exploded in recognition within the Nineties.
His work included monitoring high-profile artists and their entourages as they got here and went from the Huge Apple.
He stated he shared his methods to scale back violence within the music trade in different components of the nation, together with in Miami and Atlanta.
He additionally served as a murder and chilly case detective throughout a profession that spanned greater than 20 years and labored alongside the US Marshals, the ATF, the DEA and the FBI, in keeping with his web site.
“You need to watch and see who’s coming to your metropolis. Who’s there and who’s what,” he advised Fox Information Digital in a 2024 interview. “We will’t observe all people, however when sure individuals come to town, it is best to know who, particularly sure individuals which can be in your radar. That’s the best way I take a look at it.”
A lot of the job, he stated, concerned protecting regulation enforcement and nightclub administration conscious of who was going the place in an effort to keep away from potential confrontations between rival teams.
He performed a task within the 1999 investigation into the Membership New York taking pictures the place music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs was charged however later acquitted. Pop celebrity Jennifer Lopez was additionally briefly detained and launched.
Parker stated his strategy to policing the hip-hop world wasn’t to return down arduous on its stars.
“I used to be the regulation, so he was all the time pleasant,” he later stated of Combs. “I’m by no means arduous on these guys. They know what they get into. They know what bother they’ve.”
Parker wrote a e book about his experiences, “Infamous C.O.P.: The Inside Story of the Tupac, Biggie and Jam Grasp Jay Investigations from the NYPD’s First ‘Hip-Hop Cop.’”
The e book chronicled his involvement in investigations surrounding three of hip-hop’s most infamous killings: Tupac Shakur, Christopher Wallace, who carried out because the Infamous B.I.G. and Jam Grasp Jay, the Run-DMC DJ whose actual title was Jason Mizell.
It will be many years earlier than Mizell’s killers went on trial. Parker was on the witness stand.
After Parker retired from the NYPD in 2002, he labored in safety for giant occasions and govt safety, making use of the identical philosophy of figuring out who can be going the place to keep away from conflicts.
He additionally turned a frequent media commentator on high-profile instances involving figures and venues he had encountered throughout his NYPD profession, together with Combs’ sex-trafficking trial final 12 months and even the marriage between Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce at Madison Sq. Backyard.
He had additionally advised Fox Information Digital that he hoped to write down a follow-up e book.
“I need to actually inform an enormous, massive story about loads of stuff,” he stated.
Days earlier than his loss of life, he stated he was intently following the Las Vegas homicide case in opposition to Duane “Keffe D” Davis, who’s charged with enjoying a task in Tupac Shakur’s 1996 homicide. Jury choice started Monday.
“We have been speculated to exit to dinner for my birthday,” Ralph Parker advised Fox Information Digital. “He’s like, ‘Oh, we’re gonna exit and eat. Your birthday’s coming, don’t fear about it.’ Effectively, I gained’t be capable to go eat with him.”
