A Denver rapper is going international after 15 years

Beloved Denver rapper Old Man Saxon is flying the nest.

Thanks to an epiphany generated by a family vacation, a bottle of Tanduay rum and overpriced avocado toast, he and his family are moving to Vietnam for the next eight months.

Two years ago, while traveling in the Philippines, Saxon Kincy ordered a double shot of rum and was shocked to find the cost was $2 … for the entire bottle. He had a memorable night sharing his windfall with a beach full of strangers, then flew home through San Francisco, where he paid way too much for an avocado toast.

“I’m like, ‘Not even my kids can have some!’ It just started to get me thinking about my life, my music and everything around living in America,” Kincy recalls. “I want to see, in this small-ass world that we live in, what it sounds like for my music to be somewhere where money goes further, to see what it does to my art.”

But before he departs, Kincy took the time to share how passion, patience and perseverance have defined his 15-year music career.

Kincy’s story is not one of overnight success, but rather a slow and steady journey of self-discovery. When he started making music, he struggled to reconcile the artistic persona of Old Man Saxon with his personal identity. He got caught up in “playing the industry game,” he admits.

“When I was young, trying to start my rap career, I’d say things to get me to pop as a rapper,” he says. “Like, ‘If I rap like this, maybe Stone’s Throw can sign me, or I can get into Def Jam.’”

But his 2016 debut EP, “The Perils,” proved that he didn’t need to put on an act for his music to reach people. The EP’s title track, which is still Kincy’s most-streamed song to date, narrates a typical day in his life from when he was living out of his car in L.A. “There’s a couple metaphors and similes, but that first verse was just thoughts out loud,” he says of the straightforward lyrics. “That wasn’t Old Man Saxon rapping at that point. That was Saxon, and that’s kind of when it clicked.”

After the warm reception of “The Perils,” Kincy realized that authenticity doesn’t automatically mean being tough or hard, as it’s often presented in mainstream hip-hop. “That’s not the truth at all. If we’re going by the definition of the word ‘authentic,’ it’s being yourself,” he explains. “I’m a goofy person, and I’m a pretty deep thinker on certain things. That’s my authentic self.”

However, he found himself overcorrecting to a point where his goofiness felt performative, too, especially after he was cast on Netflix’s hip-hop competition show “Rhythm & Flow” in 2019. “It kind of unclicked when I got on ‘Rhythm & Flow,’ honestly,” he says. “Because it’s this live visual medium, I was like, ‘Okay, this is going to be real Old Man Saxon, jokey and fun.’ People saw it, people liked it, and I went back home and was like, ‘Now I have to make an album that people like.’”

Trying to maintain the character he presented on the show led to “The Peacock Honey,” his least favorite album. “I still love the rapping and the production, but I don’t listen to it because I made it for other people,” he says. “The thing with originality and being your authentic self is, you make stuff for you.”

Feeling disconnected from his art, Kincy became disillusioned with the music industry and contemplated retiring from rap. While searching for a new career path four years ago, he started hosting Healing Futures songwriting and performance workshops in local schools as part of his nonprofit Three Things, which he co-founded with his wife, Brittany Ballard. Through teaching, inspiring and encouraging kids to make music, he recovered his own creative spark and was reminded why he’d wanted to pursue music in the first place. “Because music is this business now, some people are trying to live the life of a brand. And that’s not what I am, because it’s not about the brand to me, it’s about the music,” he says. “Deep down, I just love making music. There’s no better way in my life to replace silence than to make a song.” 

Now, Kincy is back to doing what he loves, on his own terms. “Some people might think I’m a failure as a rapper for being here for 15 years and only having 100,000 views or because there are people way more popular than me, but that’s not why I did it,” he says. “I did it because I was seven years old, writing E-40 lyrics down. To stick with something enough, where at some point you can sit back and enjoy the fruits of your labor, is one of the greatest feelings ever.” 

In the last year, Kincy has enjoyed some big wins. Two songs from his 2021 album blew up: “Hell Yeah” went megaviral on TikTok, and “I Will Carry You” with Safari Riot opened YSL’s most recent Paris Fashion Week show. “Stay Cool,” off his 2025 EP “SPORTS!,” was featured in the 2025 edition of NBA 2K. And this April, Kincy got his biggest sync placement yet when his song “Dreams” was used in an Apple commercial. “It’s the thing that I said I wanted most when I first learned about sync licensing,” says Kincy.

What makes it even sweeter is that “Dreams” features his wife (under the name “Baby Luck”) and two kids. “We worked slowly, slowly, slowly, in a society that’s all quick, quick, quick,” he says, “and we made a song with our kids on it, that’s in an Apple commercial, and it’s the most I’ve made off music in the last five years combined.” 

Kincy has come a long way since living out of his car in an L.A. Fitness parking lot. “If you keep on chasing dreams, they can’t be far away. That’s the realest shit I’ve ever said,” he says, referencing lyrics from “Dreams.” His best advice for other aspiring artists is to never give up: “I can’t stress enough what it means to just keep working at something. You can have other jobs, you can do other shit, and it might take longer. But just keep working at it.” 

It’s this dedication to his craft that made Old Man Saxon a star – and earned him a 2026 Best of Denver award for Best Stage Presence. If you’ve been to an Old Man Saxon show, you would think that he’d studied comedy, improv, public speaking and theater, but he’s had no formal training for the stage. “I’m the culmination of all my influences. I didn’t necessarily do public speaking or anything, but I studied the people I like,” he says, citing jazz performer Cab Calloway and rapper Mac Dre. “And I also studied – and this is so important for people to know – the people I didn’t like. Study what you don’t like, see how that makes you feel, and then do the opposite.”

While Denver will certainly miss Old Man Saxon’s electrifying live performances during his time abroad, he plans to tide us over with “Oldies,” a brand-new, four-song EP that drops July 19. It comes ten years after his debut EP, and showcases everything he’s learned over the last decade. “I’ve gotten to a place now as a 37-year-old rapper, which sounds crazy, where I’ve been able to now reflect on my rap career. I’ve learned how to merge Old Man Saxon and Saxon when I’m writing songs,” he says. “I learned that rappers are just professional noticers, and lyrics are just thoughts out loud. I’ve learned to simplify everything, with the expertise of ten years of doing it, and I think it shows in this EP.”

His listening tour is just the beginning of Kincy’s next chapter. “This Vietnam trip is almost a pilot program for what I want. I want to be like the Anthony Bourdain of hip-hop,” Kincy says. “I want to be able to go to a different culture, a different country, live in it, see what it does to my music, and then share it with the world.”

But at least we know Kincy will return in January, because he received a grant from Education Through Music to bring his Healing Futures program to six schools in Denver. “I want to see what happens when I get more life experiences, and what that can do for the children,” he says. “I promise, this whole thing is, ‘Let’s see what happens.’”