The Denver Metro Convention and Visitors Bureau saw dollars coming into the city, while people like Jeff Campbell, executive director of the Colorado Hip-Hop Coalition (CHHC), saw this as an opportunity to make some strides in getting Colorado hip-hop on the musical map.

Colorado unto itself has struggled to get the recognition it deserves when it comes to music, having to overcome our reputation as being a white bread state, full of Republicans and rodeos. It was nice to get some props from Details magazine earlier this year as one of the hot spots in the country for music, but blips like that don't necessarily make a long-term impact. Being a part of something like HSAN, which was launched to register young voters in cities throughout the country and spread political and community awareness, isn't necessary to take hip-hop in Colorado to the next level. But it sure could have helped.

DENVER HIP-HOP FESTIVAL & SUMMIT

A year later, Denver is licking its wounds in the aftermath of what was to be the first Denver Hip-Hop Summit, which was planned for Saturday, May 15 at the Denver Coliseum. The earlier part of that Saturday belonged to the local hip-hop team who would assemble panelist to speak on violence and safety in Denver, how to break into the music business, and community activism in politics. At 1pm, HSAN would take over with their summit presentation and panel discussion. Later that night, a concert would be held featuring Big Tymers, Yin Yang Twins, YoungBloodz and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. There was also a Denver Idol contest, enabling local performers to compete for an opening slot at the concert.

Not a bad plan, if it would have happened that way.

The Thursday before the summit, HSAN sent a press release from their New York office stating, "The Hip-Hop Summit Action Network announced today that it is rescheduling the Denver Hip-Hop Summit to a later date…we look forward to coming to Denver at a time when all of the necessary elements are in place to produce a successful gathering."

That Saturday the local Denver summit still look place, but the damage was done and the attendance was slim. The concert planned for that evening was also postponed due to poor ticket sales.

So it may be safe to say that just maybe, the summit in Denver just wasn’t going along as planned. Finding out who was responsible was like herding cats.

In an interview with Dr. Benjamin Chavis, the co-founder, president and CEO for HSAN, he explained that in other cities that hold summits, their organization works with both the city governments and the their local hip-hop community to assemble the planning committees. In unraveling this series of events, it seems for the Denver summit, it was the city that was really running the show, assigning officials that did not have adequate experience and knowledge of the local hip-hop community, concert production, event promotion, and urban music marketing.

So let's go back to the beginning with SafeCity, a youth oriented foundation from the City of Denver that focuses on job placement, and their director Charlotte Stephens. She was asked to get involved and agreed to support their efforts, "as a mean for fundraising only. We set up committees to allow people to do the things that they would like to do. My main goal was to have a concert so that I could raise dollars for youth employment funds. As far as the direction and setting up the summit, things of that nature, I did not get involved. Those were the chairs and the people who wanted to be involved," Stephens says, referring to Jeff Campbell.

Campbell feels that because he founded and runs the Colorado Hip-Hop Coalition, he was brought on board as merely a token organization made to add credibility to the list of committee members. But as a member, he wasn't given any capacity for input. "I was only given orders to do stuff," he says. "I was told that if I wanted to participate, that's what I was going to do. So I said, 'Hey, I want the opportunity to work with Russell Simmons, so I'm going to just bite my tongue and do it.' Then I find out Russell Simmons is not coming."

When Campbell's statement was brought up with Stephens, she responded, "I'll put it like this, he was chair of a committee. Each chair was responsible for all the event planning. I was using our dollars. We did get any support or dollars from anyone." She stated that she was never granted any money from the city because her foundation is a separate entity and not connected with the City of Denver…although SafeCity appears on the City of Denver website (www.denvergov.org) and even their business cards have the government seal.

This mention of money was yet another contradiction to what has been stated in the past. In a Westword article for the week of May 6-12 of 2004, Dave Herrera, music editor for Westword, interviewed Stephens and brought up the lack of publicity and knowledge of the event. She admitted that it could have been done better, but that their budget of $260,000 didn't allow for a centralized office with a full-time marketing person on the job.

"Right," agrees Stephens. "Initially what we did is we took the budget and we went out to get the pricing. We figured out what we needed to be able to do the event and what costs were associated. Then we took the dollars from that standpoint and went to places to ask them to be a sponsor so that those costs would go down. I'll be honest with you. All of those costs were associated with the artist's costs. The total cost we came up with was $150,000."

Considering she wasn’t involved in the promotion of the workshops, even $150,000 seems excessive for one concert.

The $15,000 from SafeCity was spent on flyers, advertising in three magazines, including Urban Spectrum and Image Magazine (the latter of which typically focuses on the dance and club market versus hip-hop, instead of the wider and larger Westword audience) and a few radio spots on Denver's hip-hop station, KS107.5.

According to Campbell and Stephens, Penfield Tate, a former Senator and Mayoral candidate, lawyer and consultant to city governments, was the producer for the local summit workshops. The topics for those panels and discussions were dictated by his office, not by the hip-hop community chairs such as Campbell.

Although Campbell was frustrated with the situation, he didn't feel he could back out at that point. "I had already put my name out there and made the commitment. So I continued to participate, but I was very critical of the process. That didn't go over favorably with the rest of the organizers, but I feel it was my best move because they dissolved their idea of starting a Denver Hip-Hop Foundation."

According to Campbell, this foundation had intentions that mimicked what he's been doing for years with his coalition: mentoring and educating inner city youth in high school about the business of music and hip-hop. This is ironic, considering the city's denial of a grant for CHHC in the last year. "I felt like that was a slap in my face. When I brought that to them, they said, 'Well, we were going to hire you.' Then I thought that was an additional slap in the face to hire me to do something that I'm already doing for my own organization."

Instead, they would donate the proceeds of the concert to CHHC, giving the other half to SafeCity. Prior to the postponement of the concert, Campbell stated, "There's a duality there. I think they know that they're really not going to make any money. So I think that's their way to back out. They've said, 'Well Jeff, we're going to donate all the net profits to you.' But in reality they know they're not going to make a dime." This makes sense, since Stephens previous stated that her only involvement in the Denver summit was to raise funds for SafeCity, not another organization.

To add salt to the wound, Campbell heard that the committee was saying negative things about him on the radio. Referring to the KS107.5 DJ, Campbell explains, "So Cat Collins called me and said, 'Man, don't get involved with these people. They're talking shit about you.' And I said, 'Really.' So at that point I slammed them in the paper (Denver Post interview with Ricardo Baca). I see them as vultures with dollar signs in their eyes, trying to capitalize on the culture rather than cultivate within the community."

Kyle Reese who runs a local hip-hop promotion company, Still Livin Entertainment, and produces a local cable access show, "5280: Real Hip-Hop" on channel 57 Denver, had this to say, "Working with SafeCity was an experience that I am actually grateful for because I saw a lot of peoples true colors. I can't remember how many times I called Mr. David Satossky [executive committee/fundraising chair] offering the services of my company and he didn't even call back to say, 'Kiss my ass, you hip-hop thug.'"

That Saturday when I arrived at the Denver Coliseum, the lack of cars in the parking lot was my first indication that this was a bust. Sitting among 75 or so people in the crowd, the discussion went from wanting local radio support, dealing with the realities of what's involved in creating your musical future, and contributing to the local music community through support and collaboration. All good stuff, made even better by one of the panelist: local boy done good, DJ "Big Jon" Platt, a former Montbello student and Virgin Records executive. <more>

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