Los Angeles, CA · hip-hop · abstract hip hop

Navy Blue

1 festival played

Skateboarder-turned-rapper murmuring grief and lineage over dusty, unresolved loops — meditative rap that asks you to lean in rather than nod along.

Navy Blue is the rap project of Sage Elsesser, a Los Angeles-born artist who first became known as a professional skateboarder before turning to music. He raps and produces, and his records tend toward slow, loop-based beats with little percussive push, leaving space for a low, close-miked delivery that circles subjects like family history, mourning, faith and self-examination.

Elsesser came up alongside a loose circle of experimental rappers including Earl Sweatshirt, MIKE and Slauson Malone, appearing on and producing for their records as well as his own. His albums, among them Àdá Irin and Song of Sage: Post Panic!, established the unhurried, diaristic approach that has defined the project.

hip-hopabstract hip hop