Review: NF explores unusual topics in “CLOUDS”

Review: NF explores unusual topics in CLOUDS

 Nathan John Feuerstein,otherwise known as NF, released a new single/mixtape earlier last month called CLOUDS. He is also releasing a whole album that will be “out everywhere March 26.” according to Marinecampus.com. NF is a rapper who writes about his struggles with his family, home life, and his OCD, which is something that isn’t a very common subject matter in rap. Most rappers talk about other people or just making it for the money. NF has always had a different tone in his music than other rappers. It’s more mysterious and dark mixed with pure anger. Sometimes it’s soft singing that’s  meant to make you relate and experience the music to the fullest. 

   The song starts off with the line, “Calmly feel myself evolving. Appalling, so much I’m not divulging.” I like this line because it’s showing that you can see yourself improve in whatever you do, even if you didn’t expect it to turn out that way. I relate to the fact that you can do something and not expect it to turn out as good as it did.

   The next lyric I like is, “Hollywood, Hollywood. Hope Nate doesn’t go Hollywood. You think that, you don’t know me good. You think that, you don’t know me good.” It’s catchy and gets stuck in your head. The meaning behind it is pretty easy to figure out. According to, justrandomthings.com, There are many horror stories behind the curtains of Hollywood and it spills over to the music industry as well. NF says that he will never fit into the framework of Hollywood and what it stands for.”

   The pros of this song include the fast paced lyrics, the beat that fits perfectly with the song’s lyrics, and the way it can act like a motivational song. I also like the line, “Mixtapes aren’t my thing, but it’s been awfully exhausting. Hanging onto songs this long is daunting. (Yeah) Which caused me to have to make a call I thought was ballsy. Resulting in what you see today, proceed indulging.”  This line makes me like the song, but I still can’t relate to it as I have with his songs in the past. According to “Genius.com,” the story behind this lyric is, “Yeah, the ‘ballsy’ line was more about how I feel like up to this point, I’ve built a fan base. […] I built a fan base that’s really strong. […] It was kind of talking about that [point in my career] where it’s like, ‘I do feel like it’s a weird, ballsy move for me to drop this.’ Because I know it’s not an album, but it’s been a long time since I’ve released music.”  

    The things I don’t like so much are that it’s really easy to understand what the lyrics mean and that I can’t seem to find out my own meaning to the song. Also there’s the fact that Nate seems to be talking about himself. I’m not saying that it’s bad to talk about yourself because NF has never really had a lot of self confidence so seeing him have more confidence is nice. 

   I think that this song means that Nate is not your typical rapper. (Gold chains, doing drugs, trying to get into the spotlight). In his song Leave Me Alone he mentions that he would rather be there for his fans as opposed to the fame, proving that he has never liked fame but only does his rapping career for himself and his problems to prove to others that they aren’t alone.