Courtesy of Collin Draine
Audio By Carbonatix
Collin Draine, the co-owner of GNC Productions, believes that Denver’s Black artists are in the middle of a Renaissance, and thinks the city should take note.
GNC Productions has hosted a variety of events celebrating Black culture since forming in April 2018, and they’ve been major successes. Munchies and Mimosas, for example, fills every venue where it takes place, from Temple Nightclub to Summit to the Fillmore Auditorium. GNC even toured the event a couple of summers ago, hitting major cities. It also started a new First Friday series dubbed The Kick Back at Fifth Coffee House in Five Points.
Then there’s the overwhelming amount of talent in the local scene to pull from, too.
“Every weekend I look up,” Draine says, “there’s something dope in our community. And they’re not small productions: We’re going to Fillmore, and we’re doing 2,000 to 2,500 people; Vibes in the Park, they’ll do 1,000-plus every month. I think there’s a big movement, there’s a lot of dope things going on to shed light on.”
There’s just one problem. “I think sometimes the city is a little unfairly harsh on Black-owned venues,” Draine says. “Fights happen all the time on Market Street, at all the other type of venues, and the city’s always quick to say it’s not related to the venue … but if it happens anywhere near the vicinity of a Black venue, the city is like, ‘Okay, this is your crowd.’
“So it’s limited the spaces that we go to, the brick-and-mortar places,” he adds. “So I’ve noticed a lot of events and groups — Vibes in the Park, Family Affair — just a bevy of creators who are like, ‘Okay, we still need outlets, so we’re going to create them.'”
Courtesy of Collin Draine
GNC definitely isn’t slowing down. Its upcoming Juneteenth event at Levitt Pavilion, called The Circuit Summer Kick-Off: Munchies Fest Edition, is set to be one of the best hip-hop shows of the summer, with a lineup that includes BossMan Dlow, Skilla Baby, Trim and local legends Trev Rich and TheyCallHimAP.
“You have artists like Trev Rich and TheyCallHimAP, who are a huge part of Denver’s culture and a strong representation of both what Denver is today and what the city is evolving into,” says Ricky Haley, co-founder of Bricky Global, which is collaborating with GNC Productions on the concert. “It was important for us that the lineup reflected the city and the people who helped build the culture here, not just the national artists coming through it.”
This is the first time Skilla Baby’s playing Denver, notes Mandi King, head of partnerships at Bricky Global, which booked the rapper on the same day that Ricky and Brittany Haley founded the company.
“This is actually our first big event,” King says. “We’re really trying to make an impact on the city and do something different. We’re trying to bring culture to the city, as well, and do it in a way that highlights us as Black and brown people.”
Bricky Global was officially formed about two months ago, “so we are a very fast-paced company,” King says. “We make decisions really quickly, we move fast, we recognize the value and urgency of getting things done quickly. So while we are fairly new, we’ve also brought in people like the Munchies team, who have done it for a really long time, and we’ve learned from them, and that was really our goal of the collaboration. The Munchies crew has been very successful with the largest events in the city, and so we were like, this is a really great group of people that we can learn from. So new company, but also knows we know our resources.”
“I think the vision aligns with how we like to represent the city,” says Draine. “Like Mandi said, I think we were able to bring our expertise in the space, and they were already set up with radio, so we brought in some marketing punches and different collaborative efforts to try to push it, but this has been a quick sprint. This is probably one of the quicker ones we’ve set up, but we did see their vision as far as how they wanted to curate it and bring positivity and joy to the city, I think it was pretty easy to get down with that.”
Levitt has also been “really easy to work with,” King says. The groups were aiming for an outdoor festival similar to KS107.5’s Summer Jam, which took place at Fiddler’s Green and has included such artists as Nelly, Ja Rule , Eve and Fabolous.
“I feel like everything fell into place as far as artists, the venue, Munchies,” King adds. “I just know that it was really blessed because of how everything worked out. Everyone has been really eager to help, really eager to contribute if they see the vision. And we work to come across as individuals who recognize that we may not know everything, and we come to them very humbly about it.”
That work has paid off, considering the stacked lineup. King notes that while large touring musicians may come to Denver, they wanted to make a space for up-and-coming artists who “are really hot right now.” She adds, “We were also very intentional of trying to choose artists that were going to target different demographics. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get a Hispanic artist on there…but we also brought in Trim, because we wanted to be very mindful of the female demographic, as well.”
The move to sign Trim was “genius,” Draine says.
“When we first started, I was not quite sure,” he admits. “But then she’s been doing stops on the festival circuit and started making a name for herself, so that’s pretty dope. …. I’ve done Munchies for a while, so I’ve reached out to artists a long time. … And in doing that outreach, I’ve come to realize that Colorado is really in such a box and isolated place. If you want to get someone who has a mainstream buzz, what it takes to get them there is a lot. So then a lot of times, people are just bringing in legacy acts.
“When there’s a lineup of fresh and current acts,” he continues, “I think that’s easy to get behind. This lineup has been specifically curated, so hopefully the city can see it as such.”
Synergy was in the air: It all seemed to form organically, even though GNC Productions and Bricky Global were working on a tight deadline. And all of the careful planning and curation — which they pulled off without sponsorships, even — is about to pay off.
“We’re being very intentional about the details, we want to make everything down to the experience,” King says. “The Rolling Loud-type of events you expect from L.A.? We want that here in Colorado. Because we hear it all the time: Colorado doesn’t have culture, [Denver] is a cow town. … We want to change that perspective. There’s a lot more than just hiking.”
“We’re trying to turn Denver into a destination,” Draine adds. “We’re trying to add to the economy. I think we’re easy to get behind, from the price point and the value to being grown in your backyard — I think those are pretty dope things to say.”
But most of all, the festival will be a bona fide celebration of culture that GNC Productions and Bricky Global are committed to maintaining and uplifting. In Denver, there’s a big demand for such events, and that presents a big opportunity.
“There’s room for everyone to win,” Draine says. “I think there’s room for everyone to contribute to the culture.”
The Circuit Summer Kickoff: Munchies Festival Edition, 4 p.m. Fri., June 19, Levitt Pavilion, 1380 W. Florida Ave. Tickets are $65.87.
