[2] New Jack City premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 17, 1991, and was released in the United States by Warner Bros. Pictures on March 8, 1991.

In the New York City neighborhood of Harlem, Nino Brown and his gang, the Cash Money Brothers (CMB), become the dominant drug ring once crack cocaine is introduced to the streets.

Meanwhile, Scotty Appleton, an undercover police detective working with the NYPD, attempts to make a deal with stick-up kid Pookie, who absconds with the money.

When Stone, the leader of the CMB police operation, comes under pressure from NYPD Commissioner Fred R. Price, Appleton, currently on suspension for shooting Pookie, volunteers to infiltrate Nino's gang and is partnered with loose-cannon Nick Peretti.

After relating an anecdote about his own violent initiation into a gang in 1974, Nino warns that he will kill both Appleton and Gee Money if any problems occur.

At his trial, Nino pleads guilty to a lesser charge, claims to have been forced to help the gang due to threats, and identifies Kareem as the leader.

In the closing moments, an epilogue states that the crack epidemic is still ongoing and decisive action must be taken to stop real-life Nino Brown analogs.

Wright based his script to interviews he had with people from Little Italy in New York along with the story of Nicky Barnes, the black kingpin that had modeled his criminal organization in Harlem after the Mafia.

Wright later wrote, directed and produced Eight Tray Gangster: The Making of a Crip, a documentary of gang life in South Central Los Angeles.

[6] The account referred to the 20th anniversary of the 1967 riots in Detroit, and in its wake, the rise of crack cocaine gangs in the late 1980s, such as Young Boys Inc., and the Chambers Brothers.

[8] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three and a half stars out of four, writing: Truffaut once said it was impossible to make an anti-war movie, because the war sequences would inevitably be exciting and get the audience involved on one side or the other.

The site's consensus states: "Stylishly directed by Mario Van Peebles, New Jack City offsets its melodramatic streak with electrifying action and a cavalcade of effective performances.

The stage play stars Allen Payne, who reprises his role as "Gee Money", Treach as Nino Brown, Flex Alexander as "Pookie", Big Daddy Kane as Stone and Gary Dourdan as Scotty.

The stage production's first preview ran October 29–30, 2022 at the Gas South Theater in Atlanta, Georgia and then opened a nationwide tour from November 2022 and extended until the summer of 2023.

[23] The play returned back by popular demand in January 2024 running in Houston, Texas with a final announced date set for Memphis, Tennessee June 2024.