Let's face it: Denver's still pretty damn white -- a city with umpteen wine bars and rock venues but just a handful of halfway-decent jazz or hip-hop joints. Independent Records and Video -- the store with the big, beautiful display windows filled with big, beautiful photographs of African-American recording artists -- is one sign of urban life in D-town. The store carries an impressive selection of music in every genre -- it's the only place in town where you can satiate a midnight Big Star jones on a Tuesday -- but its primary trade is hip-hop and R&B. True, white kids could be the ones who are buying it all up, but who really cares? As the only storefront on Colfax to proudly represent black culture, Independent gets a big holla.