The story behind the song
Without You
by Elijah Snoz
A song first shared in 2020, finished in 2025 and filmed in 2026. Elijah Snoz on the story behind it, the lyrics, the studio and the video.
Words by Elijah Snoz
6 minute read
Watch the making-of ↓
For years I’ve been carrying “Without You”. The first version went up on YouTube in April 2020 as a plain audio upload, with the lyrics typed out underneath. The version you can stream now came out on 19 December 2025, produced by Jupiter. The music video followed in April 2026.
So when someone calls it my new song, I don’t argue. It’s new to them. It just isn’t new to me.
The story behind Without You
The whole song hangs on one question: what would I do without you?
I never answer it. I ask it again and again in the chorus, and the verses circle around it. There’s no big answer at the end. I think that’s honest, because that question doesn’t really have an answer. You only find out when the person is gone, and by then you’re not asking anymore. You’re living it.
The first verse opens with a promise:
If I was a princeI will give up the crown
That’s the kind of thing you say when you’re young and sure. Two lines later the song is already looking backwards: if I had the chance to go back in time, I will do it all over. One verse holds the promise and the regret together. It’s the part of the song I understand better now than I did in 2020.
What Without You means to me
“I don’t see music as separate from my art. I see it as another material.”
Painting uses colour. Sculpture uses whatever you can pick up and shape. Technology uses code. Writing uses language. Music uses sound. I work across most of these, and I keep finding that they’re asking the same questions in different materials.
My first solo exhibition, Ìpadàbọ̀, was about memory and return: the gap between the place you remember and the place that’s actually there when you come back. “Without You” isn’t about a country. But it lives in the same gap. You can’t paint absence directly. You paint what’s around it. In this song I did the same thing with sound. I kept asking the question and let the empty space do the rest.
The music journey behind the song
I don’t want to pretend every song I’ve made was leading to this one. That’s not how it works. But there is a history, and it’s all public.
- 2017
Yoga Teacher
With Breezzy Wave. Playful, and a different world from this song. The upload credits the producer as JUP7.
- 2018
AM PM, Swag, Grind
Rap, on SoundCloud as Snoz. Each shows more than a million plays there today.
- 2018
Introduced in Malaysia
A December press release describes Snoz as a Nigerian-born artist living in Malaysia.
- 2019
SAD
A song about a past relationship.
- 2020
Without You, first upload
22 April. Audio only, with the lyrics typed underneath.
- 2022
It’s You
- 2023
Live at Mont’Kiara
A performance at Mont’Kiara International School, Malaysia.
- 2025
Without You, released
19 December, on every major platform.
- 2026
The video, and the return
The video on 6 April, then Epistemology with Airinna Namara and Seyi. Ìpadàbọ̀ opens in Abuja on 21 April.
Put it in a line and it looks tidy. Real life is never that tidy, but the songs are all still there.
From Malaysia to Nigeria
I was born in Nigeria and grew up in Malaysia. My professional practice as an artist started in Kuala Lumpur in 2016. The 2018 press release described me as living in Malaysia, and in 2023 I performed at Mont’Kiara International School there.
By 2026 I was in Abuja, opening Ìpadàbọ̀ at Nike Art Gallery. The name means “The Return”.
“Without You” crossed that distance with me. It was first shared in 2020 and finished in 2025, and the video came out in the same month Ìpadàbọ̀ opened.
How Without You was made
The 2025 release was produced by Jupiter.
It’s the same song as the 2020 upload. Verse one is word for word the same. But it isn’t the same recording: the 2020 audio runs 2:57 and the 2025 single runs 3:16.
It came out on West Group Music. The platforms file it under Afro-Pop. I’d call it a love song that’s worried.
Behind the scenes
This is 46 seconds from a studio day. There’s a camcorder-style stamp in the corner that reads Friday, March 29, 03:14, and a glitchy colour filter over everything.
It’s a room with tall windows, and high-rise towers fill the glass. Against the window is the setup: a computer screen with a session open, a keyboard, a studio microphone on a stand and a ring light. Two big painted portraits lean in the room. One is a black-and-white face with an afro and a cigarette. The other is a man with long hair.
Someone in a vertical-striped shirt stays at the desk with his back to the camera the whole time. Someone else, in a white shirt with small patches and a blue bandana round his neck, keeps moving: across the room, back again, and finally up to the camera until the lens is full of shirt.
There’s music playing through it. Nobody talks.
I like this clip because nothing in it looks like making a hit. It’s a room, a screen, a mic and people moving around it. Most songs get made like that.
The sound of Without You
The song is built on repetition. “What would I do” comes round so many times that it stops being a line and turns into a rhythm. The verses are where the details are: the crown, the time machine, my supermodel, you gave me hope.
Then the bridge drops the question for a moment and says the plain thing: have been down without you.
I won’t pretend to break down the production for you. I’d rather you hear it. It’s three minutes sixteen seconds. Listen once through, then again with headphones.
The lyrics
The full lyrics are on Genius, where the song is listed under its hook, “What Would I Do”. It’s the same song. A few lines I keep coming back to:
Sometimes I woke up in sadnessBut I think about you my highness
Prince, princess, highness: the whole first verse plays at royalty, and then you notice the sadness it’s covering.
So many doubtSo many worries in my mindI will never make itIf am on my own
The most direct thing in the song. No crown, no metaphor.
Have been down without you
Five words, and the closest the song gets to answering its own question.
The music video
The video is directed by MosesVisuals. It opens on a door camera: a black-and-white feed, a Motion Detected!! alert, and a young man in a suit waiting outside with flowers behind his back.
After that the video keeps moving between worlds. There’s a blue room with chairs knocked over, where a man in a dark suit and sunglasses sits alone. There’s a prom, all balloons, tinsel and dancing. There’s a wedding, with vows, people in tears, confetti and a glitch across the screen that says 404 ERROR.
Then it takes you back to the door.
I’ll leave the ending for you to read. Watch what he’s wearing the second time.
Why this song matters
“Without You” is the song that survived.
A lot of my early songs stayed where they were, on SoundCloud and old channels. This one I kept coming back to. I shared it in 2020, released it properly in 2025 and gave it a full video in 2026, in the same month my first solo exhibition opened in Abuja.
It also shows where I’ve got to. The 2018 tracks were rap, loud and hungry. This one sings so many worries in my mind over and over, and doesn’t try to sound unbothered.
A new discovery, with a history
If you’ve only just found me, welcome. You’re not late.
I might be a new name to you, but this didn’t start yesterday. There’s a SoundCloud page going back to 2018 and a YouTube upload of this song from 2020. There are paintings, an exhibition, and a lot of songs in between. All of it is still there.
“Without You” is a good door in. If you like it, go back and listen to “SAD”. Then go forward to “Seyi”. You’ll hear the same person trying different things.
To the Moons
To everyone who’s been listening since the SoundCloud days: thank you for waiting. This one took a while.
And to anyone arriving with this song: I’m glad it’s the one that found you.
Listen to Without You
Play it once. Watch the video and wait for the door. Read the lyrics if a line stays with you.
And if the song reminds you of someone, don’t overthink it. Just send it to them.
Elijah Snoz
Questions
About Without You
Who is Elijah Snoz?
Elijah Snoz (Ajayi Damilare Elijah, also known as Snoz) is a Nigerian painter, musician and creative technologist. He was born in Nigeria, grew up in Malaysia and is now based in Abuja. His first solo exhibition, Ìpadàbọ̀, opened at Nike Art Gallery, Abuja, in April 2026.
What is “Without You” by Elijah Snoz about?
It’s a love song built around one question, “what would I do without you?”: how much one person holds you up, and what their absence would mean.
When was “Without You” by Elijah Snoz released?
The single was released on streaming platforms on 19 December 2025. The official music video premiered on YouTube on 6 April 2026. An earlier audio version was first posted to YouTube on 22 April 2020.
Who produced “Without You” by Elijah Snoz?
Jupiter.
Where can I listen to “Without You” by Elijah Snoz?
On Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, Tidal, Deezer, Amazon Music, SoundCloud and other platforms, all linked at ffm.to/elijah-snoz-without-you.
Where can I find the lyrics to “Without You” by Elijah Snoz?
On Genius, where the song is listed as “What Would I Do”.
Where can I watch the “Without You” music video?
On Elijah Snoz’s official YouTube channel. The video was directed by MosesVisuals.
The record
What this page rests on
Every date, length and credit on this page comes from one of these. Where they are silent, so is the page.
- Apple Music: Without you, single ↗Release date 19 December 2025, length 3:16, Afro-Pop, ℗ 2025 West Group Music.
- Spotify: Without you ↗Release date 19 December 2025, length 3:16.
- YouTube: official music video ↗Published 6 April 2026, 3:41. On-screen credit: directed by MosesVisuals.
- YouTube: Without You (Audio), 2020 ↗Uploaded 22 April 2020, 2:57, with the lyrics in the description.
- YouTube: Yoga Teacher, 2017 ↗Uploaded 4 August 2017. Credits Elijah Snoz and Breezzy Wave, producer JUP7.
- SoundCloud: Snoz ↗AM PM, Swag and Grind (2018) and SAD (February 2019).
- IssueWire press release, December 2018 ↗A paid promotional release introducing Snoz as a Nigerian-born artist living in Malaysia.
- YouTube: It’s You ↗Released 22 July 2022, ℗ 2022 Elijah Ajayi.
- elijahsnoz.me ↗The artist’s own archive, including the 2023 performance at Mont’Kiara International School, Malaysia.
- Ìpadàbọ̀ (The Return), the preserved recordBorn in Nigeria, raised in Malaysia, practice begun in Kuala Lumpur in 2016. Exhibition 21 April to 5 May 2026.
Drafted with AI assistance from public release records and reviewed by Elijah Snoz.