Derek Parker (Retired NYPD Detective)

Thank you for having me.

Well, what happened back then was that the rap music industry was going through a big change. And I was letting the NYPD know that we're going to have a potential problem with this East Coast, West Coast war that was going on between Death Row and Bad Boy. One commissioner listened to me and he said, Derek, look, sit down, tell me about what's going on.

And I explained to him, he said, look, you know, we're going to have you come to One Police Plaza and you're going to have to brief the Joint Chiefs of Staff, like the commissioner said. and all the chiefs onto what's going on because we're getting death threats, we're getting all these different things here in New York, the rap music industry, and we don't know how to prepare for it.

I mean, you know, a lot of it does. I mean, I was up front for most of all the hip-hop action that happened back then. You know, the 1991 shooting with Sean Combs with J.Lo. I had Sean Combs with the Steve Stout incident at the MTV. I had Jay-Z. I had Lil' Kim, Junior Mafia, Biggie Smalls, Tupac murder in Los Angeles, I mean, in Las Vegas. Tupac, the Biggie murder in Los Angeles, Tupac in Vegas.

I was in all over Miami, all over watching the rap music industry, policing it.

Well, in actuality, there is some partial truth to it. There is some. It's going to come out sooner or later, the Tupac murder. is basically, I mean, Kifidi's on trial right now. He's going to be going to trial and they're going to see what happens with that. The Biggie case is pretty much solved. It's just a point of trying to prove it.

So these two cases are still pending somewhat, but we might see closure soon with them.

Well, you got to remember, in the rap music industry, you first had positive rap music. Then rap music went to another level where it got gangster rap. Then you went from gangster rap to diss records. Diss records, radio stations, clubs, rappers going at each other. And then now we have true music. So it's changed, it's evolved so many times over and over and over again.

That's what rap music's about.

Thank you.

It was a lot of chaos back then. When we went to the precinct, there were over 300 reporters outside.