NF podcast (Final cut)

"Albums the Teacher Said Mattered" is a series where students analyze concept albums. The album "Hope" by NF is a concept album about the mental journey of Nate towards healing and self-improvement. The title track, "Hope," is a powerful and motivational song that represents a shift in NF's style. The album explores themes of success, trauma, and finding hope amidst self-doubt. The album cover depicts NF on a raft in the ocean, symbolizing his journey towards hope. The waves represent societal pressures, pushing against his desire for change. The album also addresses the music industry culture and Nate's determination to stay true to his unique style. The songs "Motto" and "Careful" reflect on Nate's journey in the music industry and the risks he's willing to take. The song "Mama" explores NF's traumatic experiences and his forgiveness towards his mother. Overall, the album is a continuation of NF's healing process and showcases his growth as an 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, aka 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. You're 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 like 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 like 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. So NF's new like interesting sound derives from like a few different sources. Generally, this album and this song is about Nathan's mental health. He narrates it like almost as his inner demon coming out, especially when it's like, Nate, 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, you are not enough, you will never evolve. 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 father, and it's a song that 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. The 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 his 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 dive deep dive into this journey with a visual analysis from Chanel. So the first thing you kind of notice on when you look at the album cover is that Enes, he's like on a raft in the middle of the ocean, and he's wearing some like pretty simple clothes, and there's not really much to look at, but like I think, 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 two 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 where 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 Enes' white clothes, and I think this is kind of characteristic of Enes' 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 like 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 it's like, I feel like a lot of celebrities are trying to like put on their best show and like present to the crowd, but Enes, 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 like the water and the waves. So do you guys like 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 mentioned these waves going against 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 it ain't 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 has made lots of progress to get to where he is today, he recognizes that there is still some danger. So like, he knows that he can lose it, like, at any time? Right. But he's not going to let that stop him from steaming ahead. Even if it's risky, he will 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 sensual mental 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 like 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 that 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 the artist was the album, and then it would take them back to hope. And I think that was pretty strategic, because Happy ended up being like 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 like 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 it 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 like sad situations. Their houses are very messy, and you kind of can just tell that their life is like 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 she, I mean 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 out 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 like having breakdowns, and she's really just like 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 like a resolution, and Candace goes back to her mom. And so it kind of displays this like reaching out, going back to like old traumas, and like readdressing, and communicating, and reaching out to people that may have caused you these problems. And it's kind of like 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 like their reconnection, and you can kind of see both of both Candace and Charlene's lives start to like 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 like 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 could 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 like she was born into that bad situation. And it kind of is generational, you know, like the poverty cycle. I don't want to say poverty, but like bad choice cycle. Um, 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, shoot, I always hit the bullseye, barely even putting effort in this. Effortless. Imagine if I did try. 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, thought I might have left, but I'm still here. I'm still here. I'm still here. Thought I might have left. Thought I might have quit. Thought I hung it up. Thought I think again. Teddy, that depends. 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, getting 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, MF 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 MF 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'm gonna write my last verse. He ends his verse saying that he does not know when he will write his last verse, and 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, and it also won the highest ranking debut. This is a quote from Billboard, it says, held by Billboard as one of the world's biggest rappers. MF is one of the most consumed artists in 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 fan base, the fans have a lot to say about Gone. Gone is probably the most traditional song in the whole album. MF 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 an ex 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 him 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 in 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. Boy is a song Nate wrote for his wife. It's interesting because this comes after 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 the 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 like 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, you know, work with him. He writes, funny how they switch up quick when they realize that your name buzzes. Funny how they all want to hop on board when they see the wave coming. 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. 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't 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 called 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. This song 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, brought 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 it, 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 favorite 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. Mistake brings a perfect segue into the final song, Running. Running starts with a gentle guitar and simple picking. It's a big difference from every other song on 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 on 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, Hope, that are important for a full circle effect. 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 done. The first half of the song, like Hope, is not wrapped. In fact, it's sung entirely, which is something we've seen in a few other songs on this album, specifically choir songs like Mistake and Gone. The verse is vulnerable and wrapped with purpose, whereas in a lot of other tracks on the album, the focus in his raps 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. 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. Yes, who he would be if he was happy. 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 mean well, 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 a couple of other tracks. Then it ends again with the simple picking, and the soft guitar, and the choir vocals. He says, I'm done for the final time. It's a really good conclusion to this journey of Hope that he's done carrying this baggage. I personally really love this. Thank you for joining us on this journey through NF's powerful concept album, Hope. 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 triumphs 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 a 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.