When Chicago’s Manwolves joined forces with rapper CRASHprez, the result wasn’t just a collaboration - it was a collision. Under the name CRASHwolves, they’ve built a world that’s equal parts chaos and clarity: live-band grit meeting lyrical precision, emotion spilling over tight musicianship. It’s the sound of six artists refusing to stay in their lanes, choosing instead to blur every line until something entirely new takes shape. In our conversation, they unpack the intensity behind creation from its catharsis to the trust it takes to let art for you and your community come first.

Hi guys! Starting off, I just want to express how much I love the way that this collaboration feels, because you could've easily chosen to keep your names separate. What was behind the decision to combine the names manwolves and CRASHprez into one?

CRASHprez: What they call that, a portmanteau? I’m basically the portmanteau prince: one thing I’ma do? I’ma mash my name with someone else’s name if that shit makes sense. It’s like designating whichever mode I’m in with the other folks I’m fusing it with: defprez, CRASHwolves, you know. To me, CRASHwolves just coronates our joint vision, symbolizing that we didn’t just throw something random together and call it a collab tape. I didn’t just hop on some demos Manwolves had laying around, they didn’t copy and paste me directly into their song formats with no continuity or intention to it. We took our time to craft this shit, and it shows.

Henry: When we’re together with Michael, it really does feel like a different band as a whole. The group dynamics shift. The song writing, and structure goals all feel different. Michael and us have separate goals as artists, but when we’re together they align for a moment in time. Combining names was a no-brainer because of all of that.

What is the significance of the title of this project and is there a message within you tried to express?

CRASHprez: I know the title is me-coded, but I didn’t come up with it! Jamie said “it all comes for me” on a song that didn’t make it, and I felt like it fit the vibe. Life comes for us at all angles, systems come for us, feelings come and go, and it all happens simultaneously.

How did this project come to fruition? Where did you guys meet each other?

CRASHprez: I’m terrible at logging most origin stories; at this rate, I say “we went to Northwest Chicago Music together” for any artist or person I met in that orbit. I just know we were around similar people, I’m pretty sure Internet Hotspot parties had something to do with it? Eventually, I opened for the boys at Sleeping Village when they dropped 3rd Dog, and Julian invited me to collaborate after that. (I remember that day, I dropped by his job and he gave me the biggest hug… I ain’t even know bro fucked with me like that, forreal.)

I pulled up on the boys like three times within a month, we kept generating new ideas, and Jamie floated the idea of doing a tape. The defprez album dropped around the same time, and I had no idea what to do next, so I leaned into the Manwolves collab tape idea. I’m glad I did!

Henry: Some of the other guys had met Michael earlier than I. Him and I first met at a show we played together at Sleeping Village. All of us ended up meeting a month or so later to play, and after working on a song, decided on the spot to write and record an EP. I think we all enjoyed being in a room together working on music.”

What is the process for writing song lyrics? Is it collaborative or is there a specific lyricist in the group?

Jules: Honestly it really depends on whatever has been inspiring us creatively, or in that moment what’s heavy on our heart or mind. It can definitely be one specific lyricist at times, but can just easily be a fully collaborative effort lyrically - with all six of us giving input on anything from lyrical content, to rhythms, etc.

CRASHprez: Everyone cooked how they needed to, not much interference. I definitely have perfectionist tendencies about me, so I rewrote a few verses to dial them in more. Perfect example: I nudged Jamie to rap at least once on this tape, and I fucked around and ended up changing my “keep your focus!” verse because the way Jamie popped his shit made me wanna double back and make sure I popped my shit all the way! I was going for, like, Big Boi on “The Way You Move:” just… freaked out, but still skillful.

When starting a fresh session are you coming in with a concept, whether that be a phrase or a topic that's been weighing in your heart or does the music come first? Is it more of a nonlinear or complex process to combine the lyrics and the music simultaneously?

Jules: It really depends on the day honestly. Just like the tide. BUT topics/music can weigh on my heart and mind with just as much importance, whatever is fueling the musical ideas to come naturally. Trying to not over think stuff too much.

CRASHprez: Some days, I’d just watch the Wolves play, and we’d all chime in or wait ‘til something hits. These are five virtuosos, so they can summon an idea outta thin air, jam on that shit for 20 minutes straight, and give that one idea like five different movements… and then not even use it. That’s how I knew I was fuckin’ with the right ones for some shit like this.

Typically, my lyrics are very driven by whatever’s weighing on my spirit; this project’s no exception. There was a lot of pouring it out on this one because my life’s been so damn intense; there were moments I felt certain energies move off my spirit once I wrote something I needed to and just said it. “i’ll never be happy” and “don’t leave me” come to mind in that regard. I only wrote to their music; I never brought verses in, save for “halos” because half of that verse came from a poem I wrote in 2020.

Julian and CRASH, you’ve spoken about the central track “won’t stop now” and your perspectives on the meaning of the song as either a personal project or as a project that resonates to a larger context. Is this duality intentional or does the music resonate differently to different members of the band naturally?

Jules: Honestly one of the most beautiful things about it, was the natural intention. I think that also plays into how we each individually choose to live our lives, where we choose to put energy and how that unfolds ultimately into the larger context of life.

CRASHprez: That song bloomed from the first CRASHwolves sessions, we started that in April 2023. As far as the duality thing [...] I’d agree with Jules, it’s just natural to me. I followed the hook like a prompt and let the music take me there. The nonlinear moments between collaborators lead to some of the most intriguing stuff; Jamie and Jules were giving me all this doomsday loner imagery, the fed-up-ness of it all. I gave…unrequited love, shattered self-love, picking that shit back up off the floor. But we all left the door open for y’all to see what y’all wanna see.

Manwolves, what is a moment either on past tours or a performance that has struck close to your heart and motivated you or inspired you to keep creating? CRASHprez, what about you?

Jules: Honestly too many to say. One of the most important aspects of it all has been having the privilege of being able to share experiences with people from all over. Making life-long connections and gaining knowledge from all of the different ways we choose to exist as humans, and the effect that music has on all of it.

CRASHprez: I’ll say something specific from the Manwolves Spring 2024 tour: we made it to Orlando, I was going about my set as I do. At a certain point, I’m so locked into rapping, it’s like autopilot. I’m fully aware of what I’m doing, but I’m also reading the room, scanning reactions, scoping whatever’s in my sightline. I saw this white lady mouthing something as I did my “SASSMAN” joint, and you gotta understand: I did my undergrad in Madison, Wisconsin, so I’m used to white people mouthing along to shit they don’t know the words to, even mocking some shit. So, my first instinct was to disregard the shit and keep scanning.

But as my eyes came back to her, I read her lips and I realized… she was rapping “SASSMAN” back at me, dog. The song had not even 2,000 streams at the time. We in Orlando, nigga. I don’t be out here. This white lady hit “Fascists Don’t Cry” bar-for-bar, too! Brought her man out the house to see me rap in this bar, bought a t-shirt and allat. That was a cool reminder that the music goes somewhere, and you never know to whom or where until you do!

It’s obvious that writing and performing is a cathartic process for you guys. How much of that process is purely personal, and how much of the art is for a wider audience to interpret in a broader context?

Jules: 75-25 :)

CRASHprez: It’s always personal, but I have no qualms about putting music into the world. Well, that’s a lie: I have many qualms, but alas, shit comes with the territory. I don’t have to give folks everything all the time, but I gotta give something, and I cherish the opportunity to put some energy into the world. Especially at a show; I enjoy the live element the most, making my music translate in a room fulla people without the screens or the bullshit in the way. I’m always thinking about what scratches my itch, first and foremost, but I also love the design aspect of how music can live in certain places, with certain people, with certain moods. I keep chasing that carrot: how do I make a CRASHprez song, project, video for every way I feel or everywhere I be?

Who are three artists that you feel deserve a spotlight whether they are up-and-coming or someone who has been around ?

Jules: Shawnee Dez, Jameson Brenner, Frsh Waters

CRASHprez: J Bambii, Rhea the Second, Mike DFG.

This collaboration is a testament on how experimental you guys are as a group but is there an instrument or genre you guys would like to explore as CRASHwolves in the future?

Jules: Potentially more experimental; more hardcore; more punk thrash influence; with more electronic involved too.

CRASHprez: I should prolly learn guitar, huh? But I’m mad impatient. Also? Better singing. Like, me fully fleshed-out as a singer. This tape was me taking the kid gloves off, I didn’t even Auto-Tune my shit forreal. But if there’s a CRASHwolves sequel, it’s definitely gotta be weirder, stranger, but with some undeniable hits on there.

Do you search for the same things in life that you search for in your artwork? Read that again…

Jules: No. There may be overlap, but I hold them in different regard and of different importance.

CRASHprez: Those needs can be so different until they aren’t. Or maybe, they’re exactly the same? Y’all just fucked my head up with that one… no comment.

Combining to Become CRASHwolves