Title: Hope
Artist: NF
Record Label: NF Real Music
Release Date: February 16, 2023
Hope is the first song NF has released since his album Clouds (The Mixtape), which he released in 2021. The rap song is powerful and well-written, showing NF in his “healing era” (as his fans call it). I’ve been waiting since Clouds (The Mixtape) was released for a song like this, and it was well worth the wait. Hope is the best song NF has released in his entire music career.
The four and a half minute song talks about healing, growth, and, hence the title, hope. This song will be a part of the album Hope, along with 12 other songs, which will be released on April 7, 2023.
The Christian rapper first released two EPs before releasing his first studio album, Mansion, in 2015. He then released Therapy Session in 2016, Perception in 2017, The Search in 2019, and Clouds (The Mixtape) in 2021.
This song is amazing because of its raw, deep lyrics that are happy and hopeful. Also, the music video for this song is his best yet. It has deep meanings behind everything in the video. We see two versions of NF, one wearing all white and the other wearing all black. The one wearing all white is NF right now while in his healing era, and the one wearing all black is past NF. There’s even a portion of the song where he is back inside of the mansion from the music video for the song Mansion, which represented his head and mental health at the time. There are even little easter eggs throughout the song’s lyrics. At one point in the song, he says, “What’s my definition of success? / Listening to what your heart says.” This is hinting back to his song Why from the album The Search, because in the song he says, “Yeah, what’s your definition of success? / I don’t trust the thoughts that come inside my head / I don’t trust this thing that beats inside my chest / Who I am and who I wanna be cannot connect, why?” In his song The Search, he says, “I’m lookin’ for the map to hope, you seen it?” which many fans think connects to the title of the song Hope and the map he is holding on the album cover. In another part of the song Hope, NF makes many references to past songs. For instance, at one point he says, “…thirty years of searching / … thirty years of (Nate) / … thirty years of (wait).” All of these refer to the names of past songs (The Search, Nate, and Wait).
However, some people may not like this song because of how much the music changes throughout it. Some parts are a lot slower than others, some parts are a lot louder than others, etc. This can be kind of annoying, because it isn’t set up in a way that most songs are. There are also portions of the song where there is a version of his voice that is deeper and creepy sounding, which some people may think is strange. These are just minor flaws, though.
All in all, Hope is NF’s best song yet, and I can’t wait for what’s in store for us in the new album.
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