For more than 20 years, Francois Baptiste, Kevin Kain and Alvin LaCabe have brought hip-hop music and live shows to the Mile High City. As promoters for , they’ve thrown decades of parties at Club Vinyl, Bar Standard and the now-closed Club Sutra among others, including most of the scene’s hip-hop club shows. Now, the trio is turning their attention to the A-Bar in Denver’s , where they hope to bring a more “down to Earth” feel to the nightlife scene.
But it isn’t easy maintaining a high-profile, hard-partying club and a welcoming atmosphere. In September, one of Denver’s biggest nightlife events was marred by violence when broke out in a nearby parking lot after Beta’s All-White Party. It was a recent reminder of an all-too for the city’s club patrons and promoters.
We talked with Baptiste and Kain about the state of Denver’s night club scene and how they’d propose to solve the violence that’s rocked its community.
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Reverb: Give us an overview of Denver’s nightlife scene right now.
Kevin Kain: Nightlife in this city has subcultures. First, there’s mainstream nightlife. These are the people who want to go out, have drinks, hear music…they want a more interactive social experience than just a nightclub. They want to be able to meet new people, play games, things like that. Thatap why places like View House and Top Golf are booming with business, because that’s on the rise.
Then, you have urban nightlife. For hip-hop specifically, I’m having a problem inviting out because they don’t want to risk their lives in case someone acts like an idiot.
Francois Baptiste: Denver’s nightlife scene is at a crossroads. Itap hard to build a crowd for “super clubs” in Denver. Anybody thatap reading this who hasn’t been clubbing in the past six months doesn’t know enough about nightlife and how it’s changed to even comment. When you go to cities like Atlanta, there’s the same music, drinking and people who come out to parties, but there isn’t nearly the amount of violence that we’ve seen in Denver on the regular.
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Is the hip-hop or “urban” nightlife scene suffering because of the violence we’ve seen over the summer?
FB: There are a number of things holding it back. But this is not just a hip-hop club issue. I hate the word “urban” when itap used to box a group of people in. The frustration level is at an all-time high on a lot of levels. Hip-hop is universal, and thatap clear when you see who is listening to hip-hop. We do it for everybody, but we were coming to a real crossroads. You can’t blame people for being upset about the violence or concerned for their safety.
KK: As a customer, I’d rather go somewhere where I can have a better chance of getting home at night. Most people come out to have a good time. There’s really only a small number of people who want to fight, and they do it because they think they can get away with it. When something happens across the street, there’s not a lot that we can do.
Thatap true–these incidents aren’t happening in the clubs per se.
FB: The problem lies in all the clubs being let out at the exact same time. Any time you have an event with a lot of alcohol and you tell someone between 1 a.m. and 1:30 a.m. that they have to finish their drinks, people leave with such an energy that itap hard to tell what might happen. When I’m in other cities and we party until 3 a.m., I’m exhausted and not trying to wait around after the club is over.
Why is it that the conversation about safety is typically relegated to stories about hip-hop clubs?
KK: I’ve been doing this for 20 years. Back in the 90’s, we were in shit holes–wherever we could throw a party, we would. There was no such thing as bottle service. We’ve been through all the eras of club life. There’s a lot of finger pointing that happens in the media and we’re experiencing it just like every other club.
FB: It falls back on the public at this point. If you’re out with an idiot, just tell them not to go. You can’t have a security guard for every person in the club. The reason I’ve done this for so long is because I want to create something where people can get dressed up and hang out with superstars. Itap disheartening because the incidents don’t happen inside of our parties; itap the late night crowds outside of the clubs where the problems start.
So it stems from the 2 a.m. last call?
FB: It does. We’ve had at our parties, Kelly Rowland, Wale–itap not like we just throw parties for gangsters. If you talk about every single crime that takes place on late nights, itap easy to blame urban nightlife.
Last year, there was legislation to push last call back to 4:30 a.m. Do you think that would solve the issue?
FB: Absolutely. You have to spread people out. Not everyone is going to stay until the last call, but it would let some of the energy in the club wear off before they hit the streets. That would prevent the problem.
