No, not the film starring Denzel Washington. On BET-Network was a series called American Gangster that premiered in 2006, which chronicled black gangsters from days of olde (the 1960's).

I, for one, never knew it was around, and while browsing Barnes & Nobles, came across "Season One" on DVD. I did a double-take, to see if it was some dopey amateurish production, but no! Narrated by Ving Rhames, this "appears" (I say 'appears' because I haven't watched it yet, and am going on pure speculation based on what I've read on the packaging) to tell individual stories on such people as:

01: Stanley "Tookie" Williams who, aside from starting the Crips Gang, achieved a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize (huh?)

02: Leroy "Nicky" Barnes - the cat portrayed by the actor from Snow Dogs, Cuba Gooding Jr, in the film "American Gangster" with Denzel, who really had such a small meager role, yet in reality, he was twice as huge as Frank Lucas. Nicky Barnes appeared on the cover of a Sunday New York Times Magazine....where was Frank?

BET is already in the mix of Season Two, so apparently the show did alright the first time around. Yet its surprising that only four people have reviewed it on Amazon's site; there's not one comment on IMDB. And, of course, not one mention of the show on DVDTalk.com.

Until now.

Its a great show. Haven't caught any of the season 2 eps yet. But when they are profiling the DC snipers the pickings are obviously getting slim.

heard a few commericals for it on the radio when american gangster was first released. never watched it though.

As an avid boycotter of BET. I must admit to watching this show on iTunes and it is for the most part quite good it doesn't glorify the criminals (most stories) and has done a good job of getting info from the people who were actually there or involved during the times in question even law enforcement involved with the case or person in question offer insight. It's cool even if it is from BET.