NF JOURNEY: INTRO II & THERAPY SESSION

Song(s): Intro II & Therapy Session

Artist: NF

Mansion was (and is) an INCREDIBLE album!! 🔥😭🙌 And that was his FIRST ONE?? From 2015!?!? WHY WAS I SLEEPING ON HIM FOR SO LONG!?! 😡 Like, that genuinely makes me MAD! lol. I could have been enjoying all of this so much sooner! Ugh. I guess I'm grateful I have it in my life now. I feel so connected to this music right now that I feel like it's come into my life at a time I really need it. Hopefully. We'll see. If I get my life together then I'll know that is a true statement. If not....I still love his music!

We are moving on to album #2, Therapy Session and I'm really looking forward to this one! Although it's probably going to get even deeper and more personal...with a name like Therapy Session how could it not?? I do know one song off this album, Real, courtesy of my brother but I haven't listened to it in a long time. Let's get started with...

Intro II

I'm sensing a pattern with these "Intros" which is super cool and unique!

OK HOLY CRAP!! This one is WILD! 🤯 And the visuals are freakin' creepy! It looks like a horror film but I'm intrigued. And the way this one just ended ("I'm sorry but I gotta leave, I don't wanna be late for my therapy session") has to mean it leads straight into the next song, aptly titled Therapy Session, so it's a two song kinda day as these two tracks have to go hand-in-hand! Ain't no other way!

There are so many freaking brilliant, intense barz on this track I'm shaking! lol. Sorry, I'm not trying to be a fangirl but it's already happenin'! This man gets me so HYPED!! I mean, did you catch when HE REFRENCES THE SONG WAKE UP FROM MANSION!? ONE OF MY PERSONAL FAVORITE SONGS!! IT ALL FLOWS TOO PERFECTLY!! AND THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING!! 🔥😭🤯

There's so much going on in this Intro, I highlighted/reacted to the parts that got me SCREAMING and FIST PUMPING below with bolded italics and emoji's because I don't have the words! 😶 

I'm back, did anyone miss me?

They said a second record could be tricky

Well that's kind of funny cause I am not tripping

My fans, they know what it is and they with me

Yeah, I ain't the type that's gon' ride with the semi

I came from a town with three lakes and no city

I've been doing shows for nothing but pennies

When I leave the stage, they never forget me

Mansion was a glimpse of my life

I let you see what it's like to be in my head

People ask me what I think I think I be doin'

If it wasn't music, I'd rather be dead

You heard what I said, that was like me at a 3, you don't want to see me at 10

Or maybe you do

I promise if that is the case, then that is what you're gonna get  🤯🔥

If you're looking for music with watered down lyrics, I promise that you need to go somewhere else

And if you want somebody to tell you everything that you wanna hear I won't be any help  😮

This flow is familiar. I think I heard it before

Oh yeah, I made it myself   😂👊

I left the door open to come in my mansion but I never said it's a beautiful house  🤯💯🙌👊🔥

Some of ya'll sat on the porch

Looked at my windows and stared at my door

They ask me if I'm going to kill it this record

I laugh in their face and I ask 'em, "Do you see the blood on the floor?"  🔥🔥

He's at it again, NF is crazy he's bad with the kids

He never talks about nothing but him

Yeah, my friends say, "He's kind of a diva."

Well, you need to get some new friends

I'm as true as it gets  💯

'Till I get on the stage and flip on the switch

And I go to a place where nobody is

If you putting my name in the song, that's something that you won't regret

I'm not lying to you here

I remember the shows when no one was there

I remember the shows when nobody cared

Some people in front of me laughing like, "He isn't going nowhere."

It's funny now, isn't it?  😏 BURRRRNNN!! 🔥

This type of life isn't how I envisioned it

This type of life, it just ain't how I pictured it

I'm in the back of the tour bus, trying to face how my family is different.

Not what you think it is

Write a review, tell me what you think of this

Give me three stars and call me and idiot

But to be honest, it don't make a difference

I know some people don't get it

But you have now entered the Therapy Session

If you don't like music that's personal, I have no clue what you people are doing here

Might as well throw out the record  😱🔥🙌👊

I pull up a chair

I track through my music like nobody's there

Only person I judge is the one in the mirror 

And lately he ain't doin' well

I don't need ya'll in my ear

I'm tired of hearing it

You call it music, I call it my therapist  👏👊🔥 YES

She keeps on telling me I have been carrying way too much baggage, I need to take care of it

I know she's right, but man it's embarrassing

Music has raised me more than my parents did  🥺😭🔥

Take out a picture of us and I stare at it

Who am I kidding? You probably ain't hearing this

Show me an artist you want to compare me with

You put us both on a track, I'm a bury 'em  

Give me this shovel, it's 'bout to get scarier 

None of you want to attack what you staring at

I see you got beats, but where is the lyrics at?  🔥 SLAAAAY KING! 👏👏

NF is the logo, you know I been wearing that

Don't come to my show and be sittin' in the very back

I call you out in the crowd like, "There he is!"  😮🤭

I thought I'd be happy. It feels like I'm cursed

It's hard to be clean when you play in the dirt

You gave me this place to go when I'm hurting

I thought it'd get better, but it's getting worse

And I got nobody to blame when I work, like 24/7

I ain't been to church, and Satan keep callin' me, he tryin' to flirt  🔥

I hang up the phone, these are more than just words

I drive on that highway and listen to Mansion

I look up to God like, "When did this happen?"

Yelling with all of my fans to "Wake up!"  🔥😭

But feel like I haven't

I get emotional. I didn't plan this

I'm doing things I never imagined

I'm sorry but I gotta leave

I don't wanna be late for my therapy session  😮🤯😱✊🔥 LET'S GOOOO!

Therapy Session

The thumbnail of this video looks disturbing...but I'm so pumped right now after Intro II!!

Trigger Warning: Self-harm, physical abuse & violence

Whoa. 😰 To say this one was "intense"... is an understatement. I went from being "jump-outta-my-seat-HYPED"  to tears. He wasn't lying when he said: "If you're looking for music with watered down lyrics, I promise that you need to go somewhere else and if you want somebody to tell you everything that you wanna hear I won't be any help." There's a lot to unpack in this song. There are a lot of lyrics I can relate to and resonate deeply with me but there are things I can't even begin to understand. The first two verses especially. 

The music video is just as dark and difficult to watch as it is to hear the words. The fact that there is a "parental warning" before the video says enough. It's not for reasons you typically get a "warning" for and it's nothing so graphic and disturbing that it would be too much to watch but it's still a lot. 

Can we talk about the production on this track though?? It's AWESOME!! It fits the video perfectly. Or vice versa. Whichever way you look at it, it's a work of art! The chorus is chilling! The people wearing the masks and NF drawing on their "smiles" is visually terrifying but metaphorically brilliant! This song may be a little much for some people (and honestly, it's probably one I won't be able to listen to very often...just when I get in one of those moods ya know?) but as NF himself puts it so brilliantly: "I don't know what you expected but what you expect when you walk in a therapy session, huh?" 🔥 Whoo! I am FREEZING with the amount of chills I get when NF goes off like that!! He is so aggressive on this track but he couldn't be any other way. To get his message across he has to be hard like that.

The ending where he's speaking is so powerful! He is doing something SPECIAL that is helping so many of us with his God-given talents. I applaud his courage and vulnerability 👏 To be the voice for people like me who feel we don't have one or can't find one. The power and connection of REAL music is when it becomes relatable without having to experience exactly what's being said. That's NF Real Music for you 👊

Italicized/bolded = I relate personally

Italicized = Because NF has killer rhymes that deserve the attention! 

Yeah, I got off stage like a month ago

I was talking to fans

And one of 'em pulled me aside and said

"We never met, but I swear that you know who I am

I've been through a lot

I don't know how to express it to people, don't think that I can

But I got that Mansion CD on rotation

That's real for me, Nate, you do not understand"

It's crazy for me

Kids hit me up, say they slittin' they wrists on the daily

This music is more than you think

Don't book me for just entertainment, it's entertainin'

Hearin' these parents, they telling their kids

My music is violent—you gotta be kidding me

I guess that your definition of violence and mine

Is something that we look at differently

How do you picture me, huh?

Want me to smile, you want me to laugh?

You want me to walk on the stage with a smile on my face

When I'm mad and put on a mask? For real though

I mean, what you expect from me?

I'm tryna do this respectfully

They say that life is a race

I knew my problems would prolly catch up eventually

I do my best to be calm

How you gon' write me and tell me you'd slaughter my family?

That's just a glimpse to the stuff that gets sent to me

These are the parts of my life they don't never see, woo!

I am aware, it's aggressive

I am not here for acceptance

I don't know what you expected

But what you expect when you walk in a therapy session, huh?

Therapy, therapy session

Therapy, therapy session

This girl at the show looked me in the face

And told me her life's full of drama (Yeah!)

Said her dad is abusive

Apparently, he likes to beat on her mama

I got so angry inside

I wanted to tell her to give me his number

But what you gon' do with it, right?

You gon' hit him up then he'll start hittin' her harder, that's real

These kids, they come to my shows

With tears in they eyes

'Magine someone looking at you

And sayin' your music's the reason that they are alive

Sometimes I don't know how to handle it

This type of life isn't glamorous

This ain't an act for the cameras (Nah!)

You see me walk on these stages

But have no idea what I'm dealing with after it, nah!

I put it all in the open

This is the way that I cope with all my emotion

I'm taking pictures with thousands of people

But honestly, I feel like nobody knows me

I'm tryin' to deal with depression

I'm tryin' to deal with the pressure

How you gon' tell me my music does not have a message

When I'm lookin' out at this crowd full of people I know I affected? Agh!

I got some things in my life (My life)

I know I should let 'em go (Let 'em go)

Let me jot it down (Jot it down)

Let me take a mental note (Mental note)

I put it all in this microphone (Microphone)

Think about that for a minute

What is the point of this song? I'm just ventin'

But what you expect from a therapy session, huh?

Therapy, therapy session

Therapy, therapy session

What you think about me

—That doesn't worry me

I know I handle some things immaturely

I know that I need to grow in maturity

I ain't gon' walk on these stages, in front of these people

And act like I live my life perfectly

That doesn't work for me

"Christian" is not the definition of what "perfect" means, woo!  🔥🔥 PREACH! 

I ain't the type to be quiet

I ain't gon' sit here in silence

If I wouldn't say what I say to your face

Then I promise you, I wouldn't say it in private

I am not lyin'

People go off on my page, and I'm tryin' to quit the replyin'

But this is ridiculous

I'm passionate, man, I really mean what I'm writing

You want me to keep it a hundred?

Okay, I'll keep it a hundred

I see a whole lot of talkin' on socials

But honestly, I don't see nothing in public

I kinda love it, yeah

"Why don't you write us some happy raps?

That would be awesome"

"All of your music is moody and dark, Nate"

—Don't get me started (Yeah!)

You wanna know what it's like if you met me in person?

Listen to my verses

This music is not just for people

Who sit in the pews and pray at the churches, nah!

I won't reject it

I don't expect everyone to respect it

I don't expect you to get my perspective

But what you expect from a therapy session?

Huh?  🔥🔥👌👊

{SPOKEN: "I mean, I think sometimes people—they confuse what I'm doin'

I write about life, I write about things that I'm actually dealing with

Something that I'm actually experiencing

This is real for me

Like, this is something that personally helps me as well

I'm not confused about who gave me the gift

God gave me the gift and He gave me the ability to—to do this

And He also gave me this as an outlet

And that's what music is for me

When I feel something, whether it's anger

Um, it's a passion about something—or frustration

Like, this is where I go

This is—this is—that's the whole "NF Real Music" thing, man

This is real for me—I need this

This is a therapy for me"}