Today's Song: Finding Self-Actualization with Navy Blue on "Higher Self"

Rapper Navy Blue’s latest release “Higher Self” catapults us into a time machine filled with heartache, life, death, and everything in between.

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Stream: “Higher Self” – Navy Blue

Rapper navy blue-aka Sage Elsesser-is a 22 year-old Los Angeles native, who’s already worked with Frank Ocean on Blonde and Earl Sweatshirt on Some Rap Songs. His fascination with Supreme and skateboarding suggests that he would’ve been perfect for the Odd Future collective too. Musically-speaking, however, he’s more in-tune with New York’s bubbling alternative scene featuring artists like Caleb Giles and MIKE. His 2019 mix-tape gangway for navy offered insight into a complicated conscious filled with trials and tribulations but also confounded optimism.

Birds soarin’ high,
what’s the password when you get to the gate?
How absurd, called a nurse, flatline
Won’t catch me in no hospital bed
I’m that guy, reek of death

Elsesser’s music forces listeners to think about the past, present, and future. His newest song “Higher Self” catapults us into a time machine filled with heartache, life, death, and everything in between. Over gentle piano riffs and a grainy backdrop, Elsesser details life as a kid when he practiced nonviolent acts while his cousin was locked up in prison. Much like Earl, he has a penchant for fitting chilling anecdotes into one or two-minute snapshots.

His conscience darts between different moments of life where death has affected his psyche upon varying degrees. At one point, Elsesser is grief-stricken and optimistic all at once; an admirable trait to have at such a young age.

The title of the track submits an obvious fascination with heaven and the afterlife, topics that can be scary and introspective depending on how one looks at it. Most people at that age tend to think about gargantuan concepts, especially when so much has happened in their life in a short period of time.

Elsesser writes metaphors as if the weight of the world is on his shoulders. He’s either walking a thousand miles to find comfort in his grief, or looking for the cleanest herb to smoke with his friends. That right there sums up the human mindset. We’re either worried about the future, contemplating the past, or distracted by life’s simple pleasures in the present. It’s what makes Elsesser’s writing so relatable and dynamic.

All I know, search within
I was turning grief into gold
Crew tight-knit
Close like the speech that I hope
Speak from the soul
Duly noted he a poet blessings on me ’til I’m gone

He also reminds us that he’s just as normal as any one of us. He has flaws and he deals with them the only way he knows how. Instead of giving in to the bright lights and fabrication of the Los Angeles lifestyle, Eslesser is on a path for self-actualization. Normally, this type of thing only occurs to people who’ve lived a full life, and know how to navigate certain situations. While Eslesser may not find this soon, he’s surely on the right path.

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