Raised in different parts of Atlanta and its neighboring suburbs,
Antoine Rogers, better known as
Bobby Creekwater, was allured by the charm of rap music. After a year of attending Clark-Atlanta University, he left the college textbooks to enter the recording studio as one-half of the duo
Jatis, which also featured partner-in-crime
Charlie Jangles. They first signed with Columbia Records, but were released from that contract, and so they went over to highly reputable hip-hop label Loud Records. Unfortunately, Loud, which already had experienced its heyday with
the Wu-Tang Clan,
Mobb Deep,
Big Pun, and many others, closed up shop before
Jatis could release an album. Learning from that experience,
Creekwater vowed that he would make it on his own and temporarily parted ways with
Jangles.
As an unsigned artist, he learned to produce his own beats and manage other tasks that otherwise would be done by a label. This came in handy when a representative of
Eminem's Shady Records heard a verse of his on a demo by another artist,
Aasim. More interested in
Creekwater than
Aasim, the label signed him in summer 2005, making the Atlanta rapper Shady's second Southern artist (after
Stat Quo). Drawing on those lessons from before,
Creekwater didn't rest on his laurels and released the Anthem to the Streets, Vol. 1 mixtape a few months later in order to beef up his profile. The following year, he formally debuted on the Shady mixtape
Eminem Presents: The Re-Up, which also featured some of his production skills alongside the work of veterans
Eminem and
the Alchemist. ~ Cyril Cordor, All Music Guide