By track five (“Mega da Correria”), his room had transformed into a moving dance circle. Shadows of people he didn’t know—but somehow recognized—formed on his walls. A girl with a ponytail and a Cropped do Flamengo pointed at him, laughing. A kid with a missing front tooth handed him a phantom can of Brahma. They weren’t ghosts. They were memories of a life he never lived .

Track ten: “Despedida.” A slow, melancholic sample of a crying berimbau layered over a 4x4 kick. The room unspun itself. The streetlights went back to yellow. The cat stopped dancing and looked embarrassed. Leo’s heart resumed its normal, boring rhythm.

“This is insane,” he whispered, but his voice came out as an ad-lib: “Êh, ô, ah, sucesso!”

And then the beat dropped.

Track three: “Ritmo dos Relógios.” Every clock in his apartment started ticking backwards. The microwave display counted up from zero. His phone’s timer spun anticlockwise. Leo felt young—no, younger—no, like he was eleven years old again, wearing knockoff Air Jordans, sneaking into a bailão through a hole in the fence.