Christian Smith turned down a full-ride track-and-field scholarship to Kent State to make dubstep instead, which is the kind of decision that only looks obviously correct in hindsight.
Crankdat's actual break came from remixing, not original production — his rework of Fetty Wap's “Trap Queen” racked up millions of plays while he was barely out of his teens and got him noticed by Skrillex and the Chainsmokers before he had much of a catalog of his own.
He's built into an actual headliner since, off tracks like “Movement” and “STFU” — his solo set at EDC Las Vegas in 2025 was the most-attended closing set in BassPOD history, and he sold out back-to-back North American tours the same year.