Derrick Parker, NYPD’s Famed “Hip-Hop Cop” Dead At 65

Source: Vlad TV / YoutubeDerrick Parker, the former NYPD detective who became widely known as the department’s “Hip-Hop Cop,” has died. He was 65 years old. As spotted on The New York Times, Parker died July 24 at a hospital in East Meadow, N.Y., after suffering a heart attack, according to his brother Strickland Parker. His death closes the chapter on a unique and sometimes controversial career that placed him at the intersection of New York City policing and Hip-Hop during some of the culture’s most turbulent years.Parker joined the NYPD in 1982 after studying public administration at St. John’s University. He initially worked as a beat cop in Midtown Manhattan before becoming an undercover narcotics officer in the Bronx. He eventually became one of the department’s youngest detectives and spent roughly a decade working homicide cases in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood.In 1996, Parker joined the NYPD’s newly created cold-case unit. His familiarity with Hip-Hop, along with relationships he had developed throughout New York’s music scene, increasingly made him the detective other officers turned to when rappers, record executives or their entourages became connected to c...