As the riddim looped, Elias pulled out a worn notebook. He didn’t want to write about the "badness" that the streets expected of him. He wanted to write about the weight of the silence after the sirens fade. He began to pen lyrics that matched the instrumental’s slow, deliberate pace—a "life story" of a man trying to find a melody in the middle of a dirge.

Elias sat on the edge of his veranda in Spanish Town, the 2021 Life Story instrumental leaking from a neighbor’s window. The year had been a relentless series of low notes. In 2021, the world felt like it was closing in, and for Elias, the "sadness" of the riddim wasn't just a musical genre—it was his daily reality.

By the time the beat faded into the night air, Elias hadn't found all the answers, but he had found his voice. The sadness remained, but it was no longer heavy. It was a song.