by Justin Davis (@AnkhDeLillo)
In hip-hop, the ways we’ve learned to talk about personal and artistic growth can feel deceptively linear. There’s something almost fatalistic about the archetypal rap journey: above its challenges and setbacks, the moment’s rapstars often seem to share a focused sense of faith in where they’re meant to end up. “Started from the bottom, now we here,” chants Drake on one of his biggest early-career hits. On 2018’s “OG Beeper,” A$AP Rocky truncates his long journey from Tumblr enigma to chart-topping fashionista in a concise couplet: “My whole life, I just wanted to be a rapper / then I grewed up, and the boy became a rapper.” For Sage Elsesser, though—better known as rapper-producer Navy Blue—the meandering nature of growth is a central theme. Raised in L.A., Elsesser was a professional skateboarder and Odd Future affiliate in the early 2010s; while attending art school in 2015, he started dropping music on Soundcloud, using Navy Blue as a pseudonym before reaching wider acclaim in the past four years. Now a fresh signee at Def Jam, Elsesser’s dropped his major-label debut Ways of Knowing, a clear-eyed distillation of his effortless, heady lyricism and deep emotional intelligence.
Elsesser’s lyrical trademarks are his introspection, emotional storytelling, and focus on personal transformation grounded in sifting through the lessons and trauma of family life. His reference points are often roundabout, globally-minded, and explicitly leftist. On “Life’s Terms,” Elsesser offers a poetic meditation on self-forgiveness and the challenge of “turning sorrow into self-care”: “Feelings get evoked, I’m going real slow / at the speed of how my tears flow / the transmutation I must undergo / like I aint ever known.” On album opener “The Medium,” he poignantly weaves references to musical peers and friends, childhood memories, and a lyrical approach grounded in patience and openness: “raise the glass and toast / I stripped my past of hope and fed it to the moment / these shoulders known atonement.” The music video for “The Medium” pairs it with “Pillars,” a powerful, grief-stricken portrait of Elsesser’s grandmother and late grandfather. We see his grandfather’s face reflected in him, his grandmother’s hands, forehead, and earrings; it’s a strikingly grateful track, holding onto every scrap of time that Elsesser’s had with the people who shaped him.
Although the verses on Ways of Knowing are so personal and intimate, they’re also frequently guided by outside voices. Album closer “Shadow’s Shield” is bookended with heartfelt messages from Elsesser’s parents, checking on him and praising his personal and artistic commitments. In between, fluttering woodwinds and a wistful vocal sample accompany him, as he invokes a long lineage of living and dead family members urging him forward: “This a warrior’s tale / told by my ancestors, Make way up the hill / and when I reached the top, sis, the moment was still.” The few rap features here all fit the tone perfectly, too. Zeroh opens up “Life’s Terms” with his own strategies for focusing on a long-term vision: “read what I wrote, just to see if I’m perceiving my scene right / rewrite the script, get the dream tight.” On “Window to the Soul,” singer and rapper Kelly Moonstone drops a sharp, confident verse on personal stumbling blocks who are afraid to self-reflect: “see through niggas like glass-stained windows / all these friendly niggas ain’t your kinfolk / they intimidated by a pen stroke.”
Each Navy Blue project before this has been largely self-produced, and he’s produced full-length albums for rappers like AKAI SOLO, Wiki, and Lord Jah-Monte Ogbon. On Ways of Knowing, he hands off beat-making duties to Budgie, a London-born producer who’s been a quiet, steady presence in L.A. for some time now. Budgie’s producing credits include Action Bronson, Pink Siifu, Your Old Droog, and Prodigy, but he might be most recognizable from The Good Book: two double-albums’ worth of gospel-inspired beats made in partnership with The Alchemist and rap guests from across the underground. That being said, painting Budgie’s sound as purely gospel would be boxing him in—he’s got a talent for full-bodied, vibrant beats with all kinds of influences. From Ye’s 2019 Chrstian rap detour Jesus Is King, to a long-running instrumental tape series called Panty Soakers, his versatility and songcraft keeps rappers coming back.
Elsesser’s typical production style is dusty, soulful, and off-kilter: his beats often feel just a little uncanny, mining their source material for tonal richness and unique moments of character. Budgie’s approach is quite different, and it’s refreshing to hear Elsesser rap in this new context: crisp, lush instrumentals that avoid competing with the lyrics for space. Budgie’s gospel influences are certainly strong here, with keys, live drums, and swirling group vocals forming the bulk of the soundscape. At the same time, these beats are intricate, full of moving parts. There are passages and brief diversions that feel as winding as Elsesser’s lyrics: like when the guitar plucks and reggae swing of “To Fall In Love” fade into a swirling, ambient synth line, or the clacking percussion and constantly-moving bass on “Look In My Eyes.”
Throughout the album, Elsesser also shifts his vocal style to match Budgie, getting more melodic in the process. On “Embers,” Elsesser dives into warm, subtle singing, backed by UK saxophonist Venna and Texas-raised singer Liv.e (fresh off her experimental R&B opus Girl In The Half-Pearl). Budgie’s production, assisted by left-field studio wizard Om’Mas Keith, is light and patient, with quick, uneven bursts of drums, and keys that match Elsesser’s melody. The track is one of the album’s most tender moments: it’s hard not to choke up when Elsesser croons, “I miss my momma, grandma, and pop so much / I see ‘em in my dreams every single night.”
Like his past collaborators Mach-Hommy and Armand Hammer, Elsesser has straddled the line between down-to-earth fandom-building and pivoting to more exclusive work—cultivating a community of invested listeners who are willing to seek him out. His last albums with wide releases were 2021’s excellent Song of Sage: Post Panic! and Navy’s Reprise; last year, he dropped three full projects exclusively on vinyl. Ways of Knowing presents Elsesser at maybe his most accessible, a primer on his vulnerability and insight for the wider audience that a major label contract strives for. Whether this was always going to happen is anyone’s guess—but as Elsesser raps on “Kill Switch,” “Fate or luck, only way is up.”