Best Hip-Hop DJ on the Grind 2012 | DJ Top Shelf | Best of Denver® | Best Restaurants, Bars, Clubs, Music and Stores in Denver | Westword
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Best Hip-Hop DJ on the Grind

DJ Top Shelf

A resident at almost any hip-hop nightclub you can name, DJ Top Shelf boasts an in-depth knowledge of good Southern rap. But he doesn't just break new records with wall-thumping bass; his selection is diverse enough to reach even the most underground of hip-hop heads. As a result, he's quickly risen through the ranks of the city's finest party rockers. Even when not behind the decks himself, he can be found alongside his DJ comrades on the mike, toasting up the crowd and keeping the energy moving. Recently inducted into the prestigious ranks of the Core DJ family, Top Shelf is one who's definitely on his grind.

Best Hip-Hop Graphic Designer

Graffiti Black for Dope Designz

That Thursday-night flier for Vinyl? He designed that one. And that special-event flier taking place at almost any urban nightclub you can imagine? Yep, he designed that one, too. Graffiti Black's stamp of graphic approval appears on everything from business cards and album covers to T-shirts and fliers. A brand ambassador of sorts, Graffiti lends his unique, dope touch to every image he creates. Widely respected in the scene as one who can turn quality product into a gold mine, the young hustler has creative stamina and marketing appeal that puts him heads above the rest.

Best Hip-Hop MC to Blind You With Science

Turner Jackson

Turner's world is turning on an axis of science that he's using to completely change up his rhyme schemes, themes and patterns. Like a supernova getting ready to self-destruct, the rapper delivers the kind of heady content that you'd need a science glossary to figure out. The raps heard on Star Destroyer, his latest album, a collaboration with Big J. Beats, are a rap nerd's wet dream. Turner's elaborate descriptions are just outlandish enough to be believable.

Best Hip-Hop Producers You Might Not Know About

Marky Bias and Big J. Beats have been doing incredible things with the MPC machine at basement and garage parties for a while now. Widely respected by local hip-hoppers like Whygee and Brikabrak, who've been lauding their talents the longest, the two consistently bring the heat out of their backpacks, both as producers and rappers over their own beats. The pair's sample selection is unmatched among the producing and beat-making souls of the underground. Pretty much, 1984 kills shit, and you should know about it.

Best Hip-Hop Show Involving a Legend

DJ Premier for Shoe Shine

Seeing DJ Premier live with every hip-hop head in the city who knows what a legend he is was spine-tingling. A humble giant, Preemo not only gave a show for the ages, but he got intimate with the crowd and gave props to all of the artists who had submitted material for the seventh installment of Shoe Shine. The crowd was adoring and Premier did not disappoint, playing all of the classics while showing love and paying homage to Guru. The smoldering energy he generated among fans was unmistakable.

Best Hip-Hop Videographer

Jeremy "Konsequence" Pape

Ask for the "Konsequence special" and you're likely to get a video with the best story line, cinematography and charisma out there. Konsequence has shot videos for rappers all over the scene, employing his personal tricks to bring to life some of hip-hop's greatest joints. Whether capturing a melancholy instrumental video for a beatmaker like Kid Hum, or documenting the roughest, toughest life of a junkie, like FOE's like-named project, Pape is on the case. His demeanor is calm, assertive and flexible, and, quite frankly, he brings out the best in rap's moving pictures.

Best Hip-Hop/Neo-Soul Night

Brown Sugar

At Brown Sugar, you're likely to hear anything from deep soul house to Jill Scott, mixed over a hip-hop beat. Party-rocking DJs SD and KDJ Above flex their neo-soul muscles every week for a laid-back crowd while Funky Buddha provides the sexy atmosphere. As the drinks flow and couples huddle together in dark corners, enticed by the sounds, party-goers get down on the dance floor to their favorite soul cuts or live performances. Consistent and diverse, Brown Sugar has become a mid-week destination.

Best Historic Show — Group

Colorado Abstract Expressionism

The late Vance Kirkland is unquestionably the most famous abstract painter in the history of Colorado art, making the Kirkland Museum the perfect place to mount a show about abstraction in this state. The four-part show, which is still on view, was conceived by museum director Hugh Grant, using his usual more-is-more style. With this loosely organized exhibit, Grant provides a look at Kirkland's illustrious career, at the work of his contemporaries, at abstract sculpture and at later abstraction — all made here in the Centennial State. Despite the title, much more than abstract expressionism is on display. In fact, there are so many great things included by Kirkland and the likes of Al Wynne, Ken Goehring, Charles Bunnell and Mary Chenoweth, among a host of others, that this show deserves more than just one visit.

Best Historic Show — Solo

Sandzen in Colorado

For decades during the first half of the twentieth century, Birger Sandzén, a Swedish painter based in Kansas, spent his summers in Colorado recording the celebrity scenery in photos, drawings and, most famously, paintings. His signature style — characterized by wild flourishes of brushwork carried out in cotton-candy shades of thick paint — created a bridge linking post-impressionism to abstract expressionism, and in the process brought that heroic moment in the development of modernism right to our front door. Taking advantage of the fact that the Sandzén Memorial Gallery in Kansas was closed for remodeling, Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center museum director Blake Milteer organized Sandzén in Colorado, using pieces from the Kansas facility, along with loans from important Colorado-based collections, to put together the largest show ever devoted to Sandzén.

Best House Shows

Mouth House

This building at 28th and California used to be inhabited by anarchist punks and folkies, some of whom were involved in Food Not Bombs. It was called the Pitchfork House back then, and you would see bands like the Fainting Fansies and others of that ilk playing there. Today the punk spirit remains, and the guys who live here now have, perhaps against their better judgment, thrown shows in their living room. Sometimes that means a completely obscure experimental or pop band from far afield, other times it'll mean a hardcore or metal show or something equally loud and hectic. House shows used to be a bit of an institution in Denver, and Mouth House is keeping that experience alive and well — in a welcoming environment, to boot.

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