Trev Rich, Denver’s first great hip-hop hope
The second that Trev Rich signed his recording contract with Cash Money Records, he’d become something more than just a Denver rapper. He was now the Denver rapper.
“Trev rich is Colorado’s Jesus,” one fan tweeted.
“S/o to Trev Rich,” another said. “Denver is about to be on the map.”
The city has had a handful of musicians cross over into the mainstream recently, like folk rockers The Lumineers and soul revivalists Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats.
Flobots notwithstanding — they’re closer to an agenda alt-rock group that happens to rap — Trev Rich is Denver’s first ever breakout hiphop artist. And humble as he may be — only the sparkling watch tucked under a loose hoodie sleeve would hint that he’d just signed with one of the biggest independent hip-hop labels in the country — he knows it.
“There’s support for hiphop in Denver, because all the big hip-hop artists come out here” and succeed, Rich said. “But not that many artists have broken out of here. We’re a consumer town. So to be the first in my generation in this (rap) scene ... . ”
He trailed off. Sitting opposite Rich in a sub-freezing art gallery in RiNo, he’s both what you would and wouldn’t expect from Denver’s first entry onto the national hip-hop stage. Rap likes attitude as much as aptitude. If you can’t rhyme — which Rich can — you can still posture your way to notoriety. But Denver’s music scene, much like the city itself, isn’t a cutthroat place. Artists prize its warmth so much that they move from cities with better music scenes to bask in it.
Rich fits that bill. He’s a happy dude, quick with a dap and never above talking to anyone. Even if he’s now the hottest rapper in Denver since, well, ever, that still hasn’t changed.
“Sometimes I wish he would change a bit,” laughed Squizzy Taylor, Trev’s childhood friend and DJ. “He’s gonna talk to anybody, and he’ll talk to you for hours.