Alter Call

"We couldn't get fifty people to come see us in Denver," Campbell says. "But then we move to San Francisco -- well, they moved to San Francisco -- and we got welcomed with open arms. Not only that, but, you know, you travel a couple hours, you're somewhere else; you travel a couple more hours and you're somewhere else. It's a big difference to be able to start off in Seattle and work your way down to San Francisco -- and everywhere in between, it's the same thing: There's a minimum of three to five hundred people showing up to see you. We were just completely and totally different. We don't look like MTV's version of what hip-hop is -- or MTV's version of anything. I think that people in Denver are not used to pioneers. They are used to settlers, you know? My mentor, Brother Jeff, always tells me that the pioneers get killed and the settlers get the land."

But Campbell, always known for being outspoken, believes that Denver's hip-hop scene will get its due when those involved in it learn to work together. "It's simple," he concludes. "It's all about cooperative economics: If you got a studio, I need to use your studio, but you need to give me the very best price. And that's just one example. If you're an artist, for instance, and you do graphic design, then you need to be doing the album covers out here, the posters and the fliers out here. There's a strong hip-hop scene, but it's very small and isolated. And as long as it remains divided -- as long as everybody's isolated from one another -- it will never show up on the radar screen."