Ohio native Christian Smith grew up highly athletic, but ultimately turned down a full-ride track-and-field scholarship to Kent State to pursue music, producing energetic and melodically vibrant EDM as Crankdat. Smith began making music while still in high school, juggling duties as an athlete with an obsessive excitement for producing his own tracks. He originally gained recognition for a string of high-energy remixes of other artists' tracks, including a bounding reworking of Fetty Wap 's breakout single, "Trap Queen." Eventually these remixes racked up millions of plays and Smith, barely out of his teens, was getting attention from bigger names in EDM such as Skrillex and Chainsmokers . 俄亥俄州的Christian Smith从小就运动能力很强，但最终拒绝了肯特州立大学的全额田径奖学金，来追求音乐，并以Crankdat的名字制作了充满活力且旋律感十足的电子音乐。Smith在高中的时候就开始制作音乐，作为一名运动员，他对制作属于自己的作品有着执着的热情。最初他凭借着为其他歌曲带来的一系列高能混音作品而获得了认可，其中包括为Fetty Wap的知名单曲“Trap Queen”的Remix。最终，这些混音作品获得了数百万的播放量，使得刚满20岁的Smith就受到了Skrillex和The Chainsmokers等EDM巨星的关注。