If you look at the cover, it’s me sitting across from myself. I think that’s what people are loving about it. I say that very explicitly in the lyrics. I understand, but you need to understand when you put on an NF album, I don’t just write music for fun. Is that why the album’s called Therapy Session?
It sounds like you’re getting a lot off your chest. I want people to feel that emotion, you know? When you put on an NF album, I want people to sit there and go, “Whoa, I just felt like an emotion.” Maybe I didn’t lose my mom, but I have a bad relationship with this person or that person. You know what I mean? So when I heard the song “The Way I Am,” which is on The Marshall Mathers LP… even though I can’t relate to every single thing that Eminem is saying, when I listened to him, it made me feel something that I can’t describe. My favorite song, I used to listen to it on the bus for hours, is “The Way I Am.” I’ve always wanted to figure out who I am by myself. Every once in a while I would listen to other artists, but he was such a huge influence. It was pretty much all I listened to and I’m not exaggerating. I pretty much just listened to Eminem for six years. I started listening to Eminem, which you can hear the influence obviously, when I was like 13 or 14. I was listening to a hip-hop artist named T-Bone. I got into music when I was like 12 or 13 years old. Here’s how I got through it, and I explain it. When I talk about struggling with something, on the next record I might talk about how I used to struggle with it. Sometimes people will be like, “Why don’t you rap about what you used to rap about?” I’m a human being. I never sit down and think, “Oh, I want to make this record more mainstream.” I just make music the way that I make it. Is the lyrical content of this album more secular?
I want people to listen to my music all over the world and relate to it and feel it the way I feel it. At first it was lot of Christian people, but now it’s a lot of people that just love hip-hop. You like the music or you don’t, you know?ĭo you have more Christian music fans or hip-hop fans? Whatever, I’m just being myself and I think people are relating to it. It doesn’t surprise me that people see that and think that, but I think I’ve made it very clear now, particularly on this second record, that I’m a hip-hop artist. At the time, I didn’t understand everything. I signed to CMG, which is the Christian side of Capitol. I wouldn’t describe myself as that, but I am a Christian.Īre you surprised that people are using that label? I talk about positive things that I’ve dealt with that have taught me things and I talk about negative things that I’m dealing with. I talk about my life, I talk about my faith. You know what I mean? To me it’s like if you’re a Christian and you’re a plumber, are you a Christian plumber? That’s the easiest way for me to explain it. I mean, I’m a Christian, but I’m just an artist. When I was doing my research, I was surprised to see music sites referring to you as a Christian rapper. It shows your fans really care about you. We want to support this music.” I don’t think you can predict it, but I’m very happy to see it. There’s no way to really know, especially now… sometimes people don’t even judge off of sales because people will just go to YouTube and listen to something, but what’s encouraging to me is I have a fan base that’s like, “We want to support Nate. How do you explain the incredible support? When your old album starts moving up, that means people are discovering you and checking into your music, so I’m definitely really excited about it. My last album is also top 10 on the hip-hop chart. What do we do next?” You know what I mean? But I am really grateful. One thing I struggle with as a person is I’m always thinking ahead, so I’m always like, “Oh. Get to know the newcomer a little better in our Q&A below. He also opened up about the influence of Eminem and the way he uses rap to work through his issues. I recently caught up with Nathan Feuerstein (his real name) at Capitol headquarters in Los Angeles to discuss the album’s remarkable success - it subsequently debuted at number 12 on the Billboard 200 - and his unwillingness to be pigeonholed by his faith.
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