In the wistful video for “Denver,” multiplatinum rapper and actor Jack Harlow prowls the stage at Five Points venue Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom, gazes meaningfully from his downtown hotel-room window, visits Shotgun Willie’s strip club, cruises East Colfax Avenue, and posts up in a Good Times parking lot in Capitol Hill.
Rolling Stone on Wednesday posted Harlow’s “Denver” video, which was actually (genuinely, for-real shot) in Colorado. That’s not frequently the case with Colorado-set TV shows or movies, although the Colorado Office of Film, Television and Media on Wednesday did not immediately respond to questions about whether the producers of the video applied for in-state filming rebates.
The lyric video for “Denver,” from Harlow’s album “Jackman,” had been on YouTube since May — a month after the album’s release. But it wasn’t until this week that the 25-year-old Kentucky native put his money where his mile-high mouth was. The bespoke video is directed by Eliel Ford, who clearly knew some local spots that represent Denver’s culture.
Harlow raps about Denver as a place to chill and find himself, and perhaps conflates the sense of isolation he finds in the mountains with the city (Denver has a metro area of about 3 million people, according to the Metro Denver EDC). In the mountains, he roams above treeline along what appears to be the Mount Evans Scenic Byway.
Representatives from Atlantic Records, Harlow’s label, did not immediately return requests for comment on the filming locations and timing, but Harlow himself ponies up quite a bit of information in the song.
“I wrote that first verse in Denver, back in September. It’s January now and I’m feeling like myself again,” he raps, just before clowning with Denver Nuggets MVP Jamal Murray on the roof of a downtown Denver building. Harlow was in town for the NBA Finals earlier this year, after having headlined Ball Arena in September 2022 (the likely reference in his lyrics).
Murray played one season at Kentucky (2015-16) before heading off the NBA, according to on3.com, and the Louisville rapper and Canadian NBA star have been buddies since before the Nuggets’ championship.
“Both Murray and Harlow are represented by New Balance and have ties to Kentucky, so the connection came naturally,” on3.com reported.
“I’m a long way from Shelby County (Kentucky),” Harlow raps at one point, flanked by images of mountain goats and felled logs appear. Indeed.
