“Time” song “Slips” from rapper and producer Navy Blue's excellent new album Notes in the ShieldReleased last week, Navy Blue lives up to its title. Over Zoom, Navy Blue, aka Sage Elsesser, explains how the song was completed a while ago as part of a different project but only resurfaced recently. “I was like, ‘How did I let this fall by the wayside?’ It’s a beautiful process,” he recalls. “Being able to listen to old songs and then mix and master them and be like, ‘Oh my god, this is what it could have been.’”
The entire project has a similar sensibility, with Navy Blue’s contemplative musings finding him tracing his own growth, filling in the corners of emotional understanding with a clarity that only comes with time. Yet, incidentally, the album itself was made fairly quickly. “I feel like it came to fruition very recently, I would say over the last three months, which is a pretty quick turnaround,” he says. “Some of them are joints that I’ve had for a while and couldn’t figure out where to go – songs that I really loved. I’m glad they’ve finally found a home.” The record features some of Navy’s sharpest rap to date, layered with complexity and delivered in a wide, ambient timing. The music is thematically familiar – narratives of self-discovery and trauma flourish from the record’s dynamic, expansive production palette – but with a newfound sense of clarity that manages to paint the rapper’s previous work in a new light.
The album is a follow-up to Navy's major-label debut, which was well-received last year. Ways of knowledgeG, Released on Def Jam. Navy Released Notes in the Shield Independent, having been dropped from the label earlier this year while finishing his second album. That record is still pending, but Navi says he's grateful for his time on a major label, and in a way, Notes in the Shield “Music is a way to get back to the way I prefer to create,” he says. “Making music has been therapeutic for me, and it’s so respectful to me. I don’t look at it as something like, ‘Oh, how can I make money off of this?’ It’s the one place where I feel like I can show up authentically and let everything come out,” he says. “And I know there are kids in the world who don’t have that, and I’m grateful that I have other things going on where I don’t have to rely on music to eat.”
Elsesser, a model and professional skateboarder, hopes to one day release the album he finished recording at Def Jam, but he also appreciates this current chapter in his life and career. In the newly released music video for the album’s opening track “Take Heed,” you feel like an artist undergoing a transformation, shedding the shackles of the past and embracing what comes next. A monochromatic infrared beam cuts through the frame, revealing an unseen texture beneath.
Blue Navy spoke to Rolling Stone About his new album, his move towards independence, and what the future might hold.
How did you get this title? Notes in the shield?
At first, the word came from the acronym MIA, which stands for “missing in action.” Because I was thinking, well, people haven't heard from me in a second. I felt like I was losing my voice. Ways of knowledge It was completely different from what my core fans were used to. So I felt like, “Oh my god, I need to get back to that, making joints on the couch and recording on the couch on my crappy microphone.” And with these new songs, I was really like, “Wow, okay.” Something, I had a conversation with Ka, and he always talks about that, not always, but I had a conversation with him where he said, “I’m recording it on a good microphone and I’m doing it in the studio and mixing it because I think the fans deserve the best quality for these songs.” I was like, “Huh, that’s right.” And I invested in a better microphone. So I think these songs sound a lot better than a lot of the other music I put out.
I really like the first song, “Take Heed”. I feel like that beat is like opening the curtain in a way. Then those drums come in.
Yeah. It was a cool moment because I went and hooked up Budgie and he had moved to a new place, and he was just playing me beats, and I was like, “Wow, this is really cool.” He was just playing me that loop, and he didn't necessarily add drums. It was like a cool feeling to have this song as the intro because Budgie had just produced my entire last album. But yeah, when I was listening to different songs at the beginning, there were so many different vibes that I was going for and I was trying to please the listener.
But what I find is that when I do a very meditative album, like Post panic! My response to that is to make Navy Replay Where it was drums and more loud vocals or whatever it was that was full of energy. And then I went back to like, “Okay, now that I’ve done this, I have the freedom to do whatever I want.” And I started feeling that way. I was like, “Okay, I should probably give them some unreleased stuff that I’ve done at shows that I know people like.” But I was like, “You know what? What would it sound like if I just did what I wanted to do?” And I think people who like my music, but trust me to put it together in a way that feels authentic to me, and I’m really happy about that because I knew that this song, “Take Heed,” should be the intro. That’s how I want to feel. I want to feel like, “Oh, this is new and weird and I don’t really know what to think about this, but I’m glad you liked it.”
Yes, the flow in this song also seems to be evolving.
Well, I feel like I play drums in a way. I think it comes from how inspired my brother Toby is. I've heard him a lot break the rules and the way you're supposed to sing certain songs. And I didn't think about that when I heard Budgie play the beat in front of me, and I started writing. And I think that's something I've been working on a lot – and it's been a staple of how I make music – is just writing until I get the idea, and not necessarily thinking about the flow or anything like that. I'm just like, “Let me finish my idea.” And if I don't like the song at the end, I'll write another one. And I try not to erase anything that I write. I'm like, “Let me honor what's coming through.”
I also like the song “Basis”, because the repetition is particularly interesting, it's almost like you're in a live band there.
I will say [Producer] Child Actor is amazing. It's crazy when you get a beat or you listen to a beat, sometimes you don't really consider the process of making that beat. And the other day he sent me the sample and I was like, “Are you kidding me? How did you think of doing that?” There's so many cuts. It's impressive how he made that. But yeah, it's funny because that was one of those joints where I was like, “Oh wow, okay.” I felt like I was kind of doing something new.
How was working on this album different than Ways of knowledge?
I had another album that I was working on in the past, honestly, while I was working on Ways of knowledgeI've been trying to make this other album for about two or three years now. So my whole focus was on that. It's always hard for me to create if I don't have a project in mind, like where is this going to live? So this album was a little bit different. I was experimenting with the way I normally make albums, and it was nice because this album was kind of an introduction to the album I want people to eventually hear.
How was your experience with a major record company?
Yes, I think I'm grateful for that experience and I think it's natural as a human being to look at situations and say, I wish things were different, but I think the universe or God or whatever people want to call it, I choose to call it God, had a different plan for me and there was something for me to learn from this experience. Notes in the Shield This is a reaction to the fact that I got fired from Def Jam in a way that was depressing to say the least. I had another album that was finished that I worked really hard on, and I handed it over to the label and I got dropped in the middle of the playoffs and all that stuff. So this album is like, I can't say it's a hostage, it's just muddy waters out there because I'm not able to take this album and present it to the public. I'm not questioning the divine order of things. Like, “Well, this is how it was supposed to be.” This was supposed to happen so I could make a new album. Notes in the ShieldOf course, when that happened, I was frustrated. But as time went on, I was like, “I'm not doing this on my time. Whenever that time is, that's when people will understand.” It's really cool because now I can look back on the songs I've made now and the time I spent making them. Notes in the Shield. I watched this movie recently, what movie did everyone keep quiet about Lupita?
Quiet place?
Well, there were two of them, and then they made the album on the first day. So, this is the album I made. I said, “Okay, this is my version of House of Dragons Coming soon game of thrones “It’s her moment.” I don’t really want to spoil it, but when that time comes, everything will make some sense, and I feel like I’m grieving the things I went through during that time. Song of the Sage: Beyond Panic! My life has changed a lot. It's like I have a new experience with my experiences. I see things differently than I did before. I used to feel a lot of anger and frustration, and I've let go of a lot of that. That feeling is still there and I can respect it, but in a different way.
That's something you can hear on the record. It sounds like a coming-of-age story, but in your late 20s versus coming of age as a young adult, you really see how flawed and dysfunctional the systems you live in are.
Exactly. I remember being in a meeting with someone I forget at Def Jam, and they asked me, “What do you want?” And I said, “I just want to inspire a kid who might be going through a hard time or talk about an experience that a kid might be going through, and they might not have the words to express it.” I think they might think, “I want a Grammy, I want a million dollars.” It’s like, that was never my thing. And I can understand how a system like that would conflict with my beliefs. You know what I mean? It’s like an ongoing internal struggle. And I think that’s with everybody. I was actually talking to somebody about this, like systems and how we feed the beast, but that beast is the one who has the money and the food, and so you’re kind of forced, forced to be like, “Okay, I’m going to take this job that I don’t like because I have to eat and I have to cook and I have to have housing.” You know what I mean?
Now that you've reached this new stage in your career, what are you looking to do next? Are you looking for a way to release this album? Will you be writing another album between now and then?
I don't know. I mean, I have a lot of music. I have this album, but to be honest, I finished the second part of this album as well. So when I finished that, I started working on expanding this album. So who knows, maybe I'll wake up tomorrow and go outside and think of something and be like, “Oh, I need to do something about this.” So who really knows? We'll see.
