NF podcast (Updated final cut)

"Hope" by NF is a concept album that explores the life and mental journey of the artist, Nate, as he seeks personal healing and a better connection with his past self. The album has a unique sound and addresses themes of success, trauma, and finding hope. The album cover and artwork symbolize Nate's search for hope amidst societal pressures. The songs "Motto" and "Careful" reflect Nate's journey in the music industry and his determination to stay true to himself. The song "Mama" explores Nate's relationship with his mother and his forgiveness despite the trauma. This is Season 3, Episode 14 of Albums the Teacher Said Mattered. You've discovered Albums the Teacher Said Mattered, where students closely analyze concept albums by American artists, and let music lovers know what they think. What makes an album a concept album? I'm Ms. B, and my students will decide for themselves in each episode of this series whether an album earns that label. Hope by NF is a concept album that goes over the life and mental journey of Nate on his way to personal healing and having a better connection with his past self. It was made in 2023 by NF, a.k.a. Nathan Fierstein. But before we get into that, let's introduce the hosts. First, we have myself, Kai. Next, we have Malcolm. Hello. Chanel. Hello. And Emily. Thanks for listening, NF! I love you! So without further ado, I'd like to introduce his album. So first up, we're going to do the title track of the album, which is Hope. The beginning of the song is slow and suspenseful, but then it slowly builds and builds until it becomes this super incredible hype song, almost. And when I first heard this song, like my sister showed it to me, it made me want to change my whole life. I wanted to start working out, eating all my fruits and vegetables, and really just getting my life together. I agree. I really loved it when I first heard it. It's a super compelling track, and NF has certainly made a reputation for being motivational. I was super impressed when I first heard it, and so were many of NF's fans. Hope was actually released as a single before the album, and it hyped up his fan base especially because it was a total shift from like his normal style. NF actually mentions this in the beginning of the song when he sings, It's time to give the people something different. But it's time to give the people something different. So NF's new interesting sound derives from a few different sources. Generally, this album and this song is about Nathan's mental health. He narrates it almost as his inner demon coming out, especially when it's like, You had a great run, and in the music video, it comes out visually as a demon. It comes out as his mouth almost. Yeah, he uses face paint to create a black smile. It has sort of a Venom Joker vibe to it, and it looks pretty creepy actually. As the song progresses, this version of himself gets louder and more aggressive, saying, Another really important part of the song is the verse. The music swells, and the strings bring a powerful backing to the first rap of the album. He starts with a question. What's my definition of success? Success is a theme throughout this album as Nate wonders what success means for himself personally and as an artist in the music industry. We'll talk about this more in depth later though. Yeah, and another personal experience he draws inspiration from is his experience as a father. He dedicates a section of the song to his son, and while still making sure that the audience recognizes his appreciation for the effort his mom put in, he wishes he could do a better job than his parents ever did. Yeah, looking into his history, a good portion of the trauma that he deals with over the course of this album is a result of his childhood. He mentions this in Hope, the song, referring to mental breakdowns and not knowing if he'll see his father again. But in starting the theme of the album, he writes his lyrics to show that the pain he went through was necessary. As he says, growing pain is a necessary evil, difficult to go through, yes, but beneficial. I think in these lines, he's finally recognizing that without these traumatic experiences, he would not be the person that he is today. However, coping with 30 years of trauma is not as simple as recognizing that it is a part of the past. He shows us this by creating comparisons between the voices that speak of Hope, saying things such as, I know I can change, and I'm the one in charge, and the inner demon within himself, exploiting his self-doubts with, you'll never evolve, and you don't have to guess. This theme of finding the voices that break him down and finding little bits of Hope continues throughout the rest of the album. In fact, this healing process is a continuation of a story he begins in his previous album, The Search, in which he states that he's looking for the map of Hope, he's seen it. The song is more than just the intro to a singular album, but the rising action of an overarching healing process throughout any musical career. After dozens of years, Enes has found the direction he needs to go. Now, through this album, we get to see his journey. So let's deep dive into this journey with a visual analysis from Chanel. So the first thing you kind of notice when you look at the album cover is that Enes, or Nathan, he's like on a raft in the middle of the ocean. And he's wearing some like green simple clothes, and there's not really much to look at. But like, at least when I first looked at it, I was like, I didn't notice it. But then, when I looked a little deeper, I noticed a few more things. I noticed he was holding a map, and there is like a bag on the raft. So in one of Enes' previous songs, called The Search, he actually says, I'm looking for the map to hope. You've seen it? And this is like a huge connection because on the album he has a map, and in the music video of Hope, he has a map. I think this is really cool because he says that he's looking for this map to hope, but now he's got the map to hope, and he's following it. And this is his journey that we get to watch, and we see it visually. So, speaking of maps, we actually made a map to act as a guide for you, the viewer, to kind of see all of these songs and all of these different connections. If you look at the show notes, you'll see a map with four distinct biomes. Each biome represents one of the common aspects that we see throughout this album. Success, the past, inner demon, and God. Furthermore, if you look closely at each of these biomes, you'll see these little cities. Each of these cities represents one of the songs in the album. The location of these cities is representative of the themes that we're going to find throughout that specific song. So, moving back to the album cover, we have our artwork specialist, Chanel. So, the next major element in the artwork is NS' white clothes. And I think this is kind of characteristic of NS' usual style because in a lot of the interviews and music videos that we see him in, he's just wearing these kind of casual hoodies, t-shirts, and things that normal people wear. And this kind of almost comes to life in his song, Motto, when he says, You might see me in the same clothes I wore last week. Am I ashamed? No. And I think that's kind of interesting because I feel like a lot of celebrities are trying to put on their best show and present to the crowd, but NS, he's kind of just humble and down-to-earth, and he really just wants to do whatever he wants. And just be comfortable. So, there is one thing that I don't exactly know what it means, and that's the water and the waves. So, do you guys have any thoughts about what that could mean? Well, the waves, I think they could represent society. Because what do waves do? They push. That's exactly what waves do. Waves push. And when you look at the album artwork, you've got the waves pushing in a very defined direction. It's easy to see. They're white-capping almost. And Nate is on the raft. He's got his map. He's looking for something. He's looking for hope. He's searching. And he's facing the direction he wants to go. But the waves, society in this case, is pushing against him. They're pushing him away from where he wants to be, back to where he used to be. And this also is further supported by the raft. The raft is kind of like almost an island in a way. It represents isolation and how he's different from society. And that kind of goes with his opposite direction pushing, going against the flow. Whoa, that's crazy. Like, I never really thought about it like that before. I like how you mention these waves going against the flow. Because Nate expresses his disdain for the music industry culture and says it lacks creativity and song motto. We get the vibe that Nate's music is unique and it will continue to stay that way. Because he won't write a record full of radio songs, do a bunch of features that his label would love, just to build hype. This song takes somewhat of a different tone than the other songs in the album, right? Yeah, it's a little more poppy and it's got a super sarcastic tone the whole time. I mean, overall, motto is Nate's journey in the music industry and his realizations that come with his newfound fame. He says his motto is, if anything broke, don't fix it. And that's how he treats his songs and his career. Which is exactly what his next track, Careful, is all about. Careful focuses on reflection. In the past, as he talks about in his previous albums, he's in a much more difficult state. So even though he's made lots of progress to get to where he is today, he recognizes that there's still some danger. Right. But he's not going to let that stop him from steaming ahead. Even if it's risky, he'll still take that risk because he knows that that's how he got to where he is now in the first place. He displays this in the song when he says the lyrics, talking about risks, I take those. Didn't get here by being careful. Taking a more sentimental tone, the album moves on to the next track, Mama. In this, NF talks about a lot of the trauma that he still has that was partially caused because of his mother. But despite these traumatic events, he still wishes the best for her as he states, Yeah, I'm grown now. It took me a while to see the bigger picture. Because if you were here today and I was talking with you, there'd be a lot of tears of joy falling on my sweatshirt. Probably followed by some apologies, and Mom, I missed you. Yeah, I think it's very sweet how he still has a respect for the effort his mom put in, even if she wasn't exactly the best role model. This wasn't always the case. In a previous album, he wrote a song, How Could You Leave Us? And it's kind of cool because it shows how he's matured as he's grown older. And he's now in a position of parenthood that his mom was once in, and he sees this from a new perspective. And this song is full of forgiveness, where previous songs are full of kind of hatred and disdain towards her. Now we'll head into a deep dive into the fifth track, Happy. Happy is one of the most popular songs on the album. Billboard Magazine actually said on their website, Happy is an absolute smash hit that will leave you with goosebumps. This record is impacting Top 40 radio now, which is actually a while ago, and was strategically placed in line with the album to ensure the discovery of the single to mainstream audiences back to the album. So they were released on the same day? Yeah, so Happy was actually released as a single on the same day that the album came out. And this kind of made sure that when fans saw Happy, they would be like, oh, I actually like this song. Who's the artist? What's the album? And then it would take them back to hope. And I think that was pretty strategic because Happy ended up being a very successful song. So Happy has a few themes, and it's mostly reflection, hope, and redemption. And a lot of these themes are explained and visualized in the music video. And the music video is actually pretty complex. I had to watch it like 18,000 times just to understand what was going on. So actually, there are two stories in the video. And so it kind of compares two families and situations, and they're very similar. So there's a woman who lives alone, and for the sake of not being confusing, I'm going to call her Candace. And there's also a woman, and I'm going to call her Charlene. And Charlene has a daughter. And so those are kind of the main differences between these two women. But in the music video, they're both living in very sad situations. Their houses are very messy, and you kind of can just tell that their life is falling apart. And it just kind of flashes through different scenes, both from the woman's perspective and the little girl's perspective. And in one of the scenes, Charlene, the woman with the daughter, she pushes her husband or partner out. This is in contrast to the other young woman, Candace, where her boyfriend leaves her. And so it's kind of a different situation where she's pushing someone away, and someone is leaving. And I think both of those concepts are addressed in the song. Anyways, so Charlene's daughter, she's this very little girl, and you kind of see her living in this life, and just kind of seeing what's happening to her mom, and just kind of the weight that's on her shoulders. And she actually happens to have a birthday during the song. And her family is there, and some of her friends, but she's just really sad because her mom's not there. And all she wants is just to be with her mom, and for her mom to be happy. And then at the same time, at the birthday scene, we can see Candace, she is struggling too. She's kind of just having breakdowns, and she's really just trying her hardest to get through her day-to-day life. But then, towards the end of the song, when everything kind of starts to come to a resolution, Candace goes back to her mom. And so it kind of displays this reaching out, going back to old traumas, and re-addressing, and communicating, and reaching out to people that may have caused Judy's problem. And it's kind of the start of real growth. And in the little girl's situation, and Charlene's, she actually comes to the birthday party. And then you can kind of see their reconnection, and you can kind of see both Candace and Charlene's lives start to get better. So my theory is that Charlene's little girl grows up to be Candace. And I think this is because in the song, one of the lyrics is, Losing hope, headed down a dangerous road. And I think this could be our parental figures, and leaders, and friends are hugely influential in our lives, and they can change pretty much everything. A common phrase you hear is, like, you are who your friends are. And I think this can be the same with anyone you're surrounded with, by choice or not. So the little girl, she kind of grew up seeing her mom's decisions, and she was born into that bad situation, and it kind of is generational, you know? Like, this poverty cycle? I don't want to say poverty, but like, bad choice cycle? But that's my theory, because she grows up, and then she becomes this girl, but then, towards the end of the song, like I said earlier, she goes back to her mom. So I think the mom that she goes back to is Charlene. So I think it comes full circle. Keeping up with these concepts, NF kind of just reinstates it with this next track on the album Pandemonium. Immediately, you can tell that this song breaks up the flow of the album. We see a lot more strings, and it's a lot more aggressive. And all of this kind of comes together as a hype song for himself. He repeats this with his lyrics, and stating that he was able to achieve greatness without assistance from others. He says, In fact, it was such a great hype song that the Baltimore Ravens used it as their intro song as an NFL team. Furthermore, he talks about his hiatus, and he's kind of suggesting that some of his fans have moved on from him. But he addresses this, and he talks about the fact that he does not keep up with any of the latest trends, and he just does what he wants to. He states, What's the latest trend? I don't have a clue. I don't follow them. They just follow me. Keep them on the edge. Keep them on their toes. Keep them wondering. Furthermore, we see a really interesting turn in the lyrics and the music here. Taking a quick look at it, we'll see that the music is at 132 beats per minute. That means it's per minute hitting 132 first beats. However, his lyrics are going around 198 beats per minute. Obviously, these two don't follow, right? So what he does is he takes it in a 3-5 rhythm, meaning that for every three rhythms and every five rhythms, they match up. In the music world, this is known as a polyrhythm. However, NF is adding a whole other layer by keeping that first beat still on the track. The only reason why this works is because he has really big emphasis on the first beat of each measure. That's where you see the strings at the beginning just really pounding it out. It creates this really cool syncopation-type beat where it slowly separates the beat from the lyrics, and then at the beginning of every measure, it matches back up, creating this really cool effect where it seems almost chaotic, suggesting kind of like the name of the song, Pentamonium, just a little crazy, and then bringing it back to order. Pentamonium sort of marks the midway point in the album where a transition and shift in ideas takes place in the overall album thematically. From making up in the past, which is what the first six songs kind of go over, to now locking in and pushing forward the future, this next track starts us off with exactly that. Suffice is all about the standards that NF continues to hold himself to. This is shown in the song's main chorus where he says, mediocre, that just will not suffice. So it's sort of like an explanation for why he's so relentless in his search for greatness. Exactly, and not only that, he also gives us insight into the motivation for his music, saying, life is a gift, I want to live it to the fullest while I can, why would I not? Would know my days in this game are numbered, might as well enjoy the few years that I do have left, who knows when I'ma write my last verse. He ends his verse saying that he does not know when he will write his last verse. He wants to leave his audience with something memorable, and he did create something memorable. In fact, he reached number two on the Billboard 200 and stayed on the chart for 19 weeks with hope. It also won the highest ranking debut. This is a quote from Billboard, it says, hailed by Billboard as one of the world's biggest rappers. NF is one of the most consumed artists of our time, generating over 30 billion combined global streams worldwide and selling over half a million tickets to date. His fans are super dedicated to his music and his career. Speaking of the fanbase, the fans have a lot to say about Gone. Gone is probably the most traditional song in the whole album. NF discusses a very prevalent theme in music of love and breakups, and for this song, he collaborates with Julian Michaels. And what is interesting is the song is about his ex. And there was a whole Reddit asking, like, is it okay for NF to write this song about his ex when he's, like, happily married and has a child? Like, is it kind of weird? And there were some, like, mixed opinions. And I don't necessarily think it's weird that he wrote a song about his ex. However, I don't think that this song fits on the album. Um, yes, it does. While it's a little weird to write a song about your ex while in a relationship, it's still part of his healing process and a major one at that. While there hasn't been many public announcements, it seems like he was with this girl, his ex, for several years. If he's writing this album about, like, and acting as his coping mechanism, and he's telling his story about his entire healing process, he has to include every single part, even if it is controversial. I can see your point of view, but, like, I think it's a really cool song, and I like the instrumentals. I just really don't think it fits on the album. I feel like the album is more of, like, looking back, looking at his mistakes, and also looking forward. But, just like a love song, and, like, the lyrics, like, sometimes I think of you and I miss you, or not I miss you, but sometimes I think of you and I get sad. I feel like it's just, like, weird, and I feel like it doesn't fit here, and it doesn't fit with his style. Interestingly enough, next up is NF-8's track, Bullet. It's yet another love song, but this time, it's not about his ex. Bullet is a song Nate wrote for his wife. It's interesting because this comes after Gone, which is a song that he wrote for his ex, but it's still really meaningful. It highlights how he would either take a bullet or shoot a bullet if it came down to it to protect her and their family. My favorite line from this track is when he says, When you're down and you feel low, when your world starts to crumble, when you think that there's no hope, I got you. I also really like this line. It's part of the chorus. Throughout the song, he talks about how proud he is of her and how proud he is to be with her. He connects this to their parenthood together and how having their first baby really connected them together. So it's one of the more vulnerable tracks on the album because of how passionately he feels in this song. But not only is he proud to be with his wife, he's proud of himself. The next song is Turn My Back. That kind of acts as a hype song for himself. In this song, he kind of talks about some of his inspirations. He talks about Conray, Dre, Eminem, Dre, J. Cole, Kendrick, etc. He almost not only compares himself and talks about them, but he says how he has outshined some of them and how he's on a whole other level. He then talks about how when he was a small-time artist, people didn't want to sign on with him. People didn't want to collaborate with him. But now that he's making millions of dollars, everyone's asking to work with him. He writes, Funny how they switch up quick when they realize that your name buzzin'. Funny how they all want to hop on board when they see the wave comin'. Funny how they wouldn't put me on the tour and now they hit me up and say, I hope you're doing well, we should do a tour or something. After discussing his current issues with the media and the music industry, NF moves on to dive right back into his past with his next song, Mistake. Mistake is honestly one of my favorite songs on the album. The main theme of the song is, we are not our mistakes, or rather, he is not his mistakes. I think this is a great point in his recovery process because this is where he is separating himself from his past decisions and choosing to move forward. Yeah, I think he recognizes that there are things he can take responsibility for. Like he says, I've got qualities I'm not proud of. I've made promises I've walked out on and I've had days I don't feel I don't deserve love. However, it's not right to label his character as a mistake. I like all the things he mentions. We've also seen Nate repeat the sentiment that he doesn't feel he deserves love throughout the album, but especially in the song Help when he says, we are not enough, you'll never be loved. I really like that in this song, he makes a distinction between his character and his choices. He says, so think what you think, just don't call me a mistake. It's fitting that this next track follows Mistake because it discusses the importance of learning from them and passing that knowledge on to others. Let Him Pray Let Him Pray sort of represents a resolution that Nate makes. A lot of the songs before this one discuss his audience and how the world seems against him. They all try to take a slice, which is from Suffice, of his success and as a result bring him down. This is the moment right before the end of the album where NF decides to take a stand and let everyone know that they can go ahead and say whatever they want about him, but it does not matter. Just like in the song it says, see him praying on my downfall, let him pray. What matters to him is what he values, like God, not what they value. Conversations with the Lord should be every day, reconnecting with my core, get my head on straight. As he develops this idea of his values, he tells us to stay focused because life can be distracting from your true goals. Mistakes that I made robbed me of my full potential. Life will test you, don't forget to remember the fundamentals. This ties into this idea of resilience and its power, which he's been discussing in several other songs. Suffering can be the greatest teacher if you can bounce back from it stronger than before. This song adds to this idea, saying that it becomes even more powerful when we share what we learned with our children. The momentum building, I can feel it. My resilience cannot hide it, can't conceal it. Made me suffer, but also some made me brilliant. Pass my brilliance down and teach my children. Life is precious, life is treacherous. Life is filled with dead-end roads, keep on pushing, keep on healing. This idea of momentum building is one of my favorites from this song because it's reflected in the music. Music repeats this melodic pattern that builds up and then drops back down over and over. You may have heard it in the intro part for this section. With each repetition, there is a slight increase in volume and tone. This builds in the background of the entire song, as other elements come in all distracting. But nevertheless, the pattern continues. The other elements, like the bass and the drums, almost completely drown out the pattern at some points, but it does not stop. This is a fantastic metaphor for this idea of ignoring the distractions and focusing on building your personal momentum based on your values. Because in the end, when all the other things are gone, that is all that is left. If you let yourself focus on the other things, which are represented by the bass and the drum, you might lose track of yourself, represented by the melody. Madame Prey brings the perfect segue into the next song, Running. Running starts with a gentle guitar and simple picking. It's a big difference from every other song in the album. It's backed up by choir vocals, some ooze, that solid build in volume and intensity with added drums and vocals. This song is a lot calmer, and it sounds much more resolute. It's probably my favorite song in the album because of this. It brings a conclusion to the journey that Nate has guided us through. There's quite a few lyrical parallels to the opening track, This song feels sort of like a confession to himself. He sings that he's done with all the baggage and the darkness that he's carried around. He talks about this so much in Hope and in Mama and in all of the songs that we've talked about so far. I find this lyric especially hopeful. He says, I'm ready, I can see the sun, it's coming up. There's happiness on the horizon, I'm hopeful, I can see the light. I've hesitated all my life, but I'm not afraid. I'm ready, I can see the sun, it's coming up. There's happiness on the horizon, I'm hopeful, I can see the light. I've hesitated all my life, but I'm done. The first half of the song, like Hope, is not rapped. In fact, it's sung entirely, which is something we've seen in a few other spots in this album specifically require songs like Mistake and Gone. The verse is vulnerable and rapped with purpose whereas in a lot of other tracks on the album, the focus in his rap is on the intensity and the rhyming and the power that naturally comes with the rap genre. But we see Nate taking his talent and making it vulnerable here. He explained a lot through rap and Nate uses that to his advantage. He says, I wish you the best, but I'm not interested in giving you more of my life, I've already given you too much. He's talking to his inner demon here, which is something we also see in Hope. It's really important, the connections that are made at the very beginning and the end of this album. So in Hope, he says 30 years of running, but in this song, he says, I'm done running from you, which is his past self, his inner demon, this dark hole full of baggage and all of the stuff that he's carried along with him. It explains why Nate says he will love and miss himself. He says you as he's talking to his inner self, his past self. But in order to be healthy and to start his healing, he has to break off from the darkness and find a place of happy, which is a throwback to the song Happy, who he would be if he was happy. And I think he's probably about to find out because he's finally confronting this issue. He says, I don't want to lose you, I don't want to keep you, I know that you need love, but when I fail, I don't need you. He says, you're holding me back, you're pulling me down, you're making me hate myself, I don't want to leave, but that's what I need. This intensity is super similar to the ending of Hope as well, and in a couple of other tracks. Then it ends again with the simple picking and the soft guitar and the choir vocals, and he says I'm done for a final time, and it's a really good conclusion to this journey of Hope that he's done carrying this baggage and I personally really love this. Thank you for joining us on this journey through NF's powerful concept album, Hope. So today we've explored deeply personal and emotional landscapes that NF crafts with a signature blend of raw honesty and lyrical complexity, from the struggles of self-doubt and mental health, to the triumph of personal growth and resilience. Each track on this album offers a window into NF's world and a mirror for our own experiences. Hope is more than just an album. It's a testament to the strength of the human spirit and the enduring quest for a brighter future. NF's ability to articulate the highs and lows of life resonate deeply, reminding us all that even in our darkest moments, there's always the glimmer of hope. As we close this episode, let's carry forward the message of perseverance and self-belief that NF so passionately conveys. Stay tuned for an in-depth discussion on guts by Olivia Rodrigo, and other episodes on albums the teacher said matter. Until next time, keep finding hope in music and in each other. Thank you for listening! My name is Doug Shiffman and I approve of this message. Now I am signing something and I'm sure you can hear that.