Rapper NF Revisits His Mother’s Grave

Nate Feuerstein, known to millions as the rapper NF, is, more than anything, the voice of those devastated by America’s opioid addiction. The Gladwin, Mich., product, like his crack-epidemic-affected forebears in the genre from the ’80s and ’90s (listen to tracks such as Public Enemy’s “Night of the Living Baseheads”), dwells upon what was and is, and does so far more deeply than is typical of the materially aspiring practitioners of hip-hop and rap whose words usually extol the proceeds of their petty violence and guile.

For NF, his experience with opioids came in the form of his absent mother, whose addiction and its resulting evils he choked and sobbed through on the crushing “How Could You Leave Us” in Therapy Session (2016).

About the Author

Luther Ray Abel

Luther Ray Abel is an Associate Editor for National Review. A veteran of the U.S. Navy, Luther is a proud native of Sheboygan, Wis.

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Nate Feuerstein, known to millions as the rapper NF, is, more than anything, the voice of those devastated by America’s opioid addiction. The Gladwin, Mich., product, like his crack-epidemic-affected forebears in the genre from the ’80s and ’90s (listen to tracks such as Public Enemy’s “Night of the Living Baseheads”), dwells upon what was and is, and does so far more deeply than is typical of the materially aspiring practitioners of hip-hop and rap whose words usually extol the proceeds of their petty violence and guile.

For NF, his experience with opioids came in the form of his absent mother, whose addiction and its resulting evils he choked and sobbed through on the crushing “How Could You Leave Us” in Therapy Session (2016).