How Michael Gardner helped change Miami's nightlife

When Michael Gardner 1st arrived in Miami in the 1990s, black entrepreneurs and culture faced discrimination and resistance across the bridge in sparkling Miami Beach, particularly on the nightclub scene.

Thirty years later, the hip-hop party he threw at the legendary Fontainebleau Hotel on the beach, called LIV on Sundays, became world-famous.

In his new documentary series, Headliner, promoter and super entrepreneur say Miami Beach was "zero percent black" when it first arrived in 1991.

"Trying to accept the racism there is difficult, especially for me as a young black man," he said. "I'm more or less trying to move between the two worlds."

Gardner didn't always plan a career as a nightlife promoter. "I wanted to be like Mike," he recalls, referring to basketball legend Michael Jordan. But, unfortunately, the dream was interrupted while he was still at the University of Miami after he missed a curfew on a visit and was transferred.

Instead, Gardner embarked on a different journey in which he sought to overcome the initial resistance to adopting hip-hop culture in mainstream Miami.

"If you haven't heard of Gardner, it's probably not your fault," the Miami Times. "Even though he was involved in the all-important Miami stew, he wasn't an enthusiastic person.

"After dark, he moved through the chaos of Miami with a calm and gentle confidence, an attitude forged over years of difficult trial and error," Gardner recalls the difficulties he faced when he first got Mal trying to break into the industry. "There's a feeling in black men that makes them want to prove something, and I experienced that on the beach ... that became my motivator."

After being homeless and living behind his cousin's hair salon, the future promoter's first party fell through.

It doesn't help that Miami's thriving nightlife isn't welcoming at first to the black community, and especially not to hip-hop nights.

For years, the city's splendor and glitz were confined to Miami Beach, where club houses and pop music exploded, and there was a stigma around black clubs and dance stereotypes.

"That shows clearly in terms of division and racism and acceptance there on the beach," Gardner said. "There are certain clubs we can't go to ... or say they don't accept.