NF Explains Rap Origins, “Really Emotional” Debut Album: Video

Michigan rapper NF hit us with his debut album, Mansion, back in March. Where’d the 24-year-old Michigan kid get that title, you ask? He tells FM:

“The album was really emotional, it was really personal, so it was just kind of like, ‘Hey, come into my mind, come into my mansion. There’s a bunch of different rooms, a bunch of different things I’m dealing with. Different rooms, different songs, you know?”

NF also went into detail with us about how he started writing music at age 12—“It sucked really bad, but, y’know, it developed into a huge passion and a huge part of my life”—and went on to binge on Eminem for four straight years. “You could hear it in my music…too much,” he says. “But I didn’t understand that, y’know? I was just like, ‘I wanna rap this way.’” 

Things started to come together once he diversified his taste and let it mold his sound, building to his self-titled EP in 2014. Of his writing process nowadays, he explains, “I just let whatever I’m feeling happen. … It’s really whatever the instrumental makes me feel. As soon as that instrumental hits me, it’s just like words come out.”