As the younger cousin of funk icon Prince, Elijah Connor was raised by a musically-minded midwestern family whose members encouraged him to pursue his own artistic projects. He was born on July 20, 1990, in Detroit, Michigan, and balanced a number of diverse interests as a young adult, even working as a fashion model for Armani and Sears during his college years. Connor also appeared in the reality show Donald J. Trump Presents The Ultimate Merger, which aired from 2010 to 2011, and portrayed a small role in the Whitney Houston film Sparkle, which hit movie theaters during the summer of 2012. By the end of the decade, he was making music, too, debuting in 2018 with the single "Mill Ticket." The song's relative success earned him a deal with Blackground Records 2.0, although his contacted was terminated within a year. After starring in another reality series, Grown & Gospel, in 2023, Connor revived his music career with "Appetite," a song that reached number 16 on the Top 100 iTunes Download chart in 2023. "Appetite" reappeared on the same chart in 2024, too, reaching number 66. Another single, "Worth It," also reached the iTunes chart in 2024, debuting at number 95 and climbing to number 60 that summer.