Therapy Session (2016) borders on a concept album, a raw, unfiltered, brooding piece of work that has unflinchingly emotional tracks such as How Could You Leave Us, a track he performs to the memory of his deceased mother. NF regularly features a prison cell, a smudged black smile across his face and documents his search for the map to ‘hope’.

He has built an audio-visual of symbolism, from black balloons that physically represent his mental burdens, to a Mansion (also the title of his 2015 album) – also a construct of his various mental challenges and states. This unfiltered grit and openness has led to fan-fueled momentum that has grown his success and community, authentically.Īs a Forbes write-up of NF’s number-one album Perception put it, “NF’s success speaks to what can be done these days outside of the traditional system of creating stars and smashes”. NF has the ability to convey intricate, personal, yet universal emotions through cinematic storytelling and interconnected themes in captivating style, presenting his trauma and past abuse in ways that hit hard. “You call it music, I call it my therapist,” he says in Intro 2. Where NF sits apart is his raw, uniquely vulnerable approach to his mental health struggles and how he openly treats his music as personal therapy. He has been compared to Kendrick Lemar and Eminem due to his lyrical prowess and masterful musicality. Yet he has sold millions of records, earned US Billboard No.1 albums, and racked up over 250m views of his chart-topping track Let You Down and over 30bn combined global streams worldwide.

Nf The Search Album