Notorious C.O.P.: The Inside Story of the Tupac, Biggie, and Jam Master Jay Investigations from the NYPD’s First ‘Hip-Hop Cop’

by Derrick Parker with Matt Diehl
St. Martin’s Griffin, 301 pp., $14.95 (paper)

Notorious C.O.P. is an opinionated firsthand account of the side of hip-hop you hide from your mother. Charged with the daunting task of standing up to New York’s flyest, Derrick Parker spent 20 years combing the streets of Gotham for anyone flashing a mic and a handgun. The self-proclaimed “hip-hop cop” was raised a B-boy in Hollis, Queens, before joining the force and rising up the New York Police Department ranks, eventually heading the first special-force unit focused on rap-related crime. Hip-hop in the 1990s was a bloody sport, and really, who shot Big? Parker had his hand in all, and C.O.P. is his time to beat his chest and do some bragging, even if it’s about his mundane escapades with J.Lo. Top-notch detective or not, this egocentric sleuth should stray far from the pen, as clichéd terminology and a knack for the typographical error run rampant in this stream-of-conscious tell-all that will leave you yearning for an abridged copy.

This article appears in November 30 • 2007.

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