Bam Bam’s first impressions of the Mile High City.

Filmed by Maceo · Denver

Answers What would you say to someone under ten? · see how other cities answered →

Somebody who moved from Seattle to Denver explains the underground rave scene he came for, the genre he wishes existed here, and the difference between two cities that he thinks comes down to weather.

Bam Bam is clear about what keeps him: not the scene, the people. What he does rate is the underground music, and his description of it is the appeal in one sentence. Phoneless warehouse parties, “out in the middle of nowhere, like under a bridge, in the sewers,” running until five or six in the morning. Seattle did not have that.

His one complaint about the culture is delivered as a public service announcement, and it is the funniest line in the Denver block: everyone is packed into a warehouse together, so please, some deodorant.

He makes beats himself, and his references are a specific lineage rather than a vibe: Griselda, Wu-Tang, MF DOOM, Westside Gunn. He is honest about the limits of his own writing and says he should stick to the production side.

What he actually wants is hard style, which Denver does not really have. “It’s more of a European thing. Netherlands, Berlin, Amsterdam.” He traces it back to the deep techno of those cities in the late nineties and adds Russia, and he is unimpressed by what Denver offers instead: the local scene is dubstep and bass, and while he likes plenty of bass, the screechy end of it grinds his gears. Asked who to listen to, he reels off names without pausing: Crude Intentions, The Purge, Mutilator, Crowdex, Lil Texas, Subzero Project.

The city comparison is the part with the most in it. “Everyone in Seattle, the vibe is just like, stay away from me, I don’t want to talk to you. If you did this in Seattle you’d get nobody. But Denver, most people are just chill.” His explanation is meteorological and probably half right: it is always grey there, and here there is sun, though he notes the sun is a problem too, and worries out loud about the fire season. He still gives Washington the win on beauty, on the strength of moss and big trees, and points out that all the trees around him were planted, because Denver is technically a desert.

Asked for a message for anybody under eight, he gives advice most people would not: finish high school, and then “only go to college if you really need to. If you don’t need a degree to do what you want to do, then don’t do it. Just do what you want.”

Language is unfiltered; the transcript is bleeped where the captions were.

What is in it

Jump straight to a moment.

0:00Bam Bam, and what keeps him in Denver
0:27Phoneless warehouse raves until six in the morning
1:00One request about the culture
1:29Making beats: Griselda, Wu-Tang, MF DOOM
2:11Hard style, and why Denver does not have it
2:37What the local scene actually plays
3:13Names to know
3:40Where the genre came from
5:03Seattle versus Denver, at the people level
5:45Sunshine, fire season, and a city in a desert
6:44A message for anybody under eight

Transcript

Transcribed with Whisper from the original audio, so nothing is masked. Names corrected. Published in full, as spoken, so it can be read, searched and quoted. Search every transcript →

0:00For the vibes, little kid. Always. Okay. And so, Bam Bam, yeah. Yes, sir. Can you tell people your name? My name’s Bam Bam. I’m from around here-ish, yeah. Oh, yeah. What’s your favorite thing about Denver? The people, for sure. I haven’t been a super big fan of, like, the scene here, except for, like, the underground music, but the people, yeah, that’s what makes me stay. Okay, so what would you say about the underground music scene here? They got, they throw dumb like warehouse raves, like, I don’t know, certain lit or like phone lists, like they’ll just send you to like these warehouses out in the middle of nowhere, like under a bridge in the sewers, throw insane raves until like five, six in the morning. Love that shit. They don’t got that like in Washington where I’m actually from.

1:07A lot of stinky motherfuckers. I mean, I love the music. The people are awesome, too, but some of them just need to take a shower more often, dude. I’m not even going to front. Like, we’re all in a warehouse together. Like, put on some Old Spice, please, for the love of God. I hear it. I hear it. But, and so do you make music? I dabble. Okay. What kind of stuff do you make?

1:35The shit, usually like very like old school New York-ish hip-hop beats or like like, you know, Griselda. I mean, you know Wu-Tang. Yeah. That’s a lot of my inspiration or like MF Doom, Westside Gunn. Love those motherfuckers. So that’s usually what I try to emanate. Okay, and how did you get into hip-hop? Just friends. Friends got music, studios. I just come in. Sometimes I try to throw a bar in there, but I think I need to stick to the techie side. I’m not too lyrical. Yeah, that’s fair. I thought you were going to say that the raves aren’t like hip-hop raves, no? Well, I mean, sometimes they can be, but not usually. I’m not super into the super wubby shit. I love hardstyle. That’s my shit.

2:26Is that a big thing here in Denver? Not surprisingly. Surprisingly not. I wish it was. It’s more of like a European, like, Netherlands, Berlin, Amsterdam. So how is there a scene here in Denver? Very scarce. I mean, the scene here is more like wubby, dubstep, bass shit. I like a lot of the bass shit, but I don’t know, dude. Dubstep just grinds my gears. You don’t like dubstep? Dubstep’s no good? I don’t like the screechy whiny shit I like the you know the wubby lubby I mean it depends I don’t know it’s a weird it’s all this it’s not all the same they’re very nuanced I don’t know but I fuck with the I fuck with the harder hitting shit

3:12okay who are like some names we should know in hardstyle like oh hards for the people who don’t know crude intentions oh yeah I like that face this way it’s more like yeah yeah yeah yeah crude intentions the purge Mutilator, oh my god, I fucking love that motherfucker

3:31Who else? CrowdX Little Texas, Sub-Zero Project Those are some of my names, yeah If you could speak to the peak of this genre of music When was it and how did it happen? SoundCloud music is like, if that’s a framework I don’t know if you know how SoundCloud came to work But it’s like a scene developed, it proliferated And now here we are I think it definitely started in, like, the Netherlands, like, or, um, I don’t know, Berlin, Amsterdam, they all got, like, that very, like, deep techno house, I think is, it’s, like, hard, I can’t remember what it’s called It’s okay But they got this, um, their techno there is very, like, deep in hits, and I think it just kind of evolved from that, maybe, I don’t know, early, like, late 90s, or to, like, Russia, too, I think

4:27Oh yeah, they fucking love it over there. That’s when they got the guys in the tracksuits fucking Oh yeah? I can’t, I know, I can’t hit that shit, I can’t hit that shit But no, yeah, that’s where it originated. I’m glad it fucking found its way out here But not enough. There’s not really any hardstyle raves out here Okay, where’s like the most prominent, what are you gonna say? Oh, I’m saying there is one coming up. I think it’s at the, I think it’s at Vinyl actually And what day is that? Shit, I don’t know man, I’d have to check Okay, maybe you’ll let me know

4:57I’ll let you know, yeah, let me get your digits Oh, yeah, dude No, they’re sick, dude Oh, they’re so much fun It’s like the exact kind of music I want when I’m at like a club or like at a show Hell yeah Hell yeah What’s it called? You say you came out here from Seattle What’s like the biggest difference you see between here and like outside the music scene, right? Like at the people level, how people talk to each other, how they interact The culture, I guess, you know? The people here are like completely the opposite That’s it, like everyone in Seattle is, not everyone, there’s cool people there, but the vibe is just like, stay away from me, I don’t want to talk to you. Like if you do this in Seattle, you’ll get like fucking nobody. But Denver, I feel like most people are just chill, like they’re down to, it might be the weather too. It’s always gray there, everyone’s sad all the time.

5:45Yeah, I heard that. But I don’t know, people here just smoke a lot more weed and chill out. We got sunshine all the time. Way too much recently, too. Our fire season’s going to be fucked up. But yeah, dude, just the people. Shout out to the water. You what? Shout out to the water. Shout out water, man. Hey, dude, we need some more of that. I think it’s probably going to snow soon, hopefully. But yeah, the people and the weather is probably the two biggest Just like opposite differences. Although, Washington is way more beautiful. The trees, the fucking, I love moss. The woods, big ass trees too. Because all these were planted. We don’t got, like, we’re in a desert technically.

6:27Yeah. Isn’t that crazy? We’re in a fucking desert. Yeah. Elevated desert, dude, it’s fucking wild. They make you think it’s not a desert. No, it is. But it explains a lot. It’s literally classified as an elevated desert. But, um, yeah, weathering the people, man. But I’m glad I’m out here, you know, it’s been fun, it’s a vibe Oh yeah, my last question is, what’s a message you have for the people under 8? Under 8?

6:57Stay in school until you graduate high school And then after that, only go to college if you really need to Because otherwise, you’ll just be in a world of hurt If you don’t need a degree to do what you want to do, then don’t do it Just do what you want No, no, oh my god No, I just, uh, I make it happen It’s all we can do, right? It’s all we can do, try my best out here Oh yeah, man, well I appreciate it No, I appreciate you, bro What was your name again? Maceo Maceo, hey Bam Bam So my page is called We Them Media

7:31And I’ve been having people say Booyah Booyah? Yeah, so you can say it with me at the end of 3, 2, 1 Ready? 3, 2, 1 Booyah!

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