City Wolf was born in a small downtown Los Angeles apartment in the summer of 2018. Clayton Stroope, a former VH1 You Oughta Know artist and the lead singer/songwriter of the US Gold selling, and Top 40 charting band Thriving Ivory wanted to take a departure from the familiar. Clayton grew up listening to the harsh programmed drum samples of Lincoln Park, Nine Inch Nails, and Depeche Mode, but absorbed vocal influences from emotive pop singers like Rob Thomas, George Michael, and Prince. His desire to combine these ingredients onto one musical canvas led him to the door of veteran Los Angeles producer TheUnder.
The two immediately hit the ground running and recorded a six song EP which was released by Los Angeles based publishing house and licensing firm Riptide Music Group. This self-titled City Wolf EP gained wider distribution into the sync licensing market gaining placements with Hulu, Marvel, Activision, Netflix, Fox Sports, HBO, Taco Bell, and Amazon Prime, solidifying City Wolf’s unique hybrid rock sound as a mainstay in the music licensing market. This elevated exposure would eventually push City Wolf’s monthly Spotify listener base to over 500K, and his overall catalogue has amassed over 30 million streams.
City Wolf continues to write new music at a frenetic pace, having already released two full length albums and two EPs in 2022 totaling more than 30 new tracks. He hit the studio again in the Fall of 2022 and has already completed a new EP and full-length album slated for release in early 2023. City Wolf has also branched out to form new musical partnerships with sync licensing/publishing juggernaut Position Music, as well as Silverside Music Group, Koze Music, NorthStar Media, and Lava Publishing.

Listen to City Wolf on Spotify