One of the first things you see walking up the concrete staircase to the OPM nightclub is a life-size golden Buddha, a worldwide symbol of peace, lying on its side on a wooden table.
Presiding over the high-tech dance floor in this sprawling Asian-themed club, with its marble bars and colorful contemporary furniture, is another wooden Buddha, standing 6 feet tall and weighting 800 pounds.
OPM, which plays hip-hop music exclusively, sits above Wolfgang Puck's Chinois restaurant in the heart of the Forum Shops at Caesars and is considered one of the most popular late-night entertainment venues in Las Vegas.
But it also is among several nightclubs singled out in a 2005 confidential police bulletin on growing acts of violence associated with the radical end of hip-hop music, gangster rap.
The bulletin, prepared by Metro's Gang Crimes Bureau, was used by Sheriff Bill Young to persuade state gaming regulators to warn casinos and nightclubs that they will be held accountable for any violence tied to gangster-rap performances.
Young, as I reported last week, is on a push to discourage this kind of entertainment on the Strip.
OPM owner Michael Goodwin, who's been in the nightclub business for 17 years, says his club and its music are getting a "bad rap" here.
"My crowd base is upscale urban individuals who love to dance to hip-hop music," Goodwin says. "They are executives and businesspeople. We've had fights, but no more than any other club."
The 42-year-old Goodwin says he worries that Young and others are unfairly casting aspersions on hip-hop because of their concerns about gangster rappers, who encourage violence with their music.
"All of the clubs play a majority of hip-hop on any given night," Goodwin says. "The reason we all play it is because that is what the young patrons want to dance to. Hip-hop is the No. 1 selling music in this country, and it is extremely popular with all races and demographics."
Goodwin, who acknowledges that some gangster-rap songs are part of the music mix at OPM, says he goes to great lengths to make his club as safe as possible.
His words are backed up by the Metro Police intelligence bulletin, I'm told.
Although the confidential bulletin reportedly cites OPM for a series of disturbances there in 2004 (something Goodwin disputes), it also says management has been cooperating with police since then.
Security at OPM, Goodwin says, starts with a strict dress code that includes no tennis shoes, jerseys, baseball caps, overly baggy jeans or sweat suits. He says he recently turned away rapper Nelly and his huge entourage because they weren't dressed properly.
Goodwin says he also has promised police that he won't host any after-concert parties for gangster rappers.
And he insists that he always makes sure to have a large contingent of security officers on hand.
In the past year, he says, he also has paid Metro $60,000 in overtime wages to station uniformed officers outside the entrance to OPM.
"Most people at the clubs are having a great time celebrating something or letting loose from something," he says. "But once in a while, you have that 1 percent of your customer base that is a knucklehead.
"And I don't care if you're playing country-western music, if you're playing punk-rock music, if you're playing hip-hop music or if you're playing top 40 music, there's not one nightclub that isn't at risk for something like that occuring periodically."
Goodwin stresses that "safety should be the key" for every nightclub in town.
"Without safety, there will be no profitability," he says. "And without safety, there will be no sleep for me.
"None of us invested millions of dollars in our businesses to cater to punks."
Jeff German's column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday in the Sun. He can be reached at 259-4067 or at [email protected].
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