Edward Crowe is covered in tattoos. Sometimes he’s rocking sunglasses and other times, a bandana. Maybe, just maybe, he’s rocking both. At first glance, his somewhat hardened exterior would be enough to persuade someone to dodge him in a dark alley, but Crowe couldn’t be more congenial if he tried. As Yelawolf’s longtime friend and manager, the Tennessee native had every opportunity to turn into a pompous music exec, but he stayed true to who he is—a tenacious, hard-working creative clearly intent on being a good person. Interestingly enough, Crowe almost didn’t survive to see his dreams realized.
As a teen, Crowe was diagnosed with Gillian Barre Syndrome, an inflammatory disorder of the peripheral nerves outside the brain and spinal cord that rendered him completely paralyzed from head to toe. But during that challenging time, Crowe made a promise to himself to pursue his goals wholeheartedly. Now, Crowe has a life beyond his wildest imagination filled with globetrotting adventures and the chance to connect with some of the industry’s most talented artists. A gifted photographer and mushroom connoisseur in his own right, Crowe is a modern day renaissance man who’s always plotting his next move.
“I feel it’s important to do your best to become as close to indispensable as possible in any endeavor you want to maintain a position in,” Crowe tells RAPstation. “Everyone is disposable under certain circumstances but if you’re honest, hustle hard and make it a point to consistently add new skill sets to your résumé, you can’t lose.
“I like to lead by example. There’s no position I haven’t had to hold down at least once, so it’s hard for the merch guy, photographer, videographer, director, producer, DJ or tour manager to tell me I don’t understand what they’re up against. I love to read and love to learn. Several of the roles I’ve played were just a means to make myself useful and get in the room. Sometimes, the hardest part is just getting in the room.”
But Crowe didn’t just get in the room, he commanded it. Crowe has officially been managing Yelawolf since 2020. Granted, they grew up in similar circles, but it was Crowe’s relentless work ethic and business sense that earned him the title. After all, he’d already been immersed in the local music scene when they reconnected.
As he told AllHipHop in May, “They usually say it’s a bad idea to do business with friends, but we have a special case. The reason we work so fluently together is because we’re the same. We come from the same background and we’re both crazy. He’s creatively schizophrenic and I’m professionally bipolar. We hustle at the same speed. I’m most proud to have had the opportunity to prove to my boy that I was willing to start at the bottom. I told him at the car wash that I wanted to work with him. I told him ‘I know you're not hiring, but I’m just gonna start doing whatever needs to be done from taking out the trash to watching the dogs and I don’t need to be paid until you feel it adds up.’ Wolf let me get to work.”
Three years in, Crowe is just as hungry for greatness as he was in the beginning. He explains, "Knowing this lifetime is finite keeps me going. Knowing we have a limited time on this plane to do something great, to make an impact on this planet, to make this world a little better than when we passed through keeps me going. Anytime I have an opportunity to inspire someone to be their best and contribute to the evolution of the unity of all people, from all walks of life, that’s what gets me charged up.
“I’ve survived many situations that I thought I wouldn’t make it through and maintained resilience. Repeatedly beating the odds keeps me going. Everyone has their own story of turning tragedy to triumph, and I’m inspired by those stories. I’m inspired by people who push boundaries and against all odds conquer the obstacles in their way. I believe in magic, and I keep my eyes wide open for signs and synchronicities.”
Crowe’s resilience was put to the test earlier this year when he lost his biggest supporter, his mother. After a brief illness, she took her last breath in March. But, as they say, the show must go on. While there’s been challenging moments, Crowe has continued moving forward, working on a photography book, the aptly titled 51/50 Tour: Photography By Edward Crowe, and finalizing his own cigar line, Murder Cigars by Edward Crowe, which is expected to arrive in August 2024 via Yelawolf’s Slumerican imprint.
For now, Crowe is comfortably on the road with Wolf, likely with a camera in hand and sunglasses on his face. His mother, meanwhile, is somewhere looking down and beaming with pride.
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