Rapper brings whole lotta hope to town

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This article was published 30/08/2023 (1081 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

American rapper NF has never shied away from discussing his mental health, but on his new album Hope, he shares optimism while addressing his battles with his inner demons.

Those emotions were all on display during a stellar show Tuesday at Canada Life Centre.

The entire crowd immediately stood up as NF, a moniker derived from his real name, Nate Feuerstein, came onstage, launching into Hope’s title track, on which he argues with the voice in his head, depicted on the giant screen behind him as himself with joker-like makeup and a fake smile painted on his lips.

NF proceeded with The Motto and Careful from his new album, with the latter featuring opening act Cordae returning to the stage. The two had undeniable chemistry with Cordae’s fun, yet poignant and intellectual, lyrics as they each rapped on top of speakers on separate sides of the stage.

Duality was a major theme throughout the show, which delved deep into NF’s struggles with mental health and his OCD diagnosis. After performing four songs from his new album, he offered up three from 2019’s The Search, with the shopping cart and black balloons featured on the album cover serving as props.

He began The Search by conversing with his demons before the beat stopped. “Where’d the beat go?” NF asked, surrounded by towering billows of smoke, before launching into rapid-fire, multi-syllable rhyming.

The most personal moment of the show came during Mama, dedicated to his mother who died of an opioid overdose in 2009 when he was 18. At one point, the Gospel Music Association-winning rapper sat on the steps in front of the drums, asking her how heaven was and praying she’d found peace.

There was nary a dry eye in the crowd as his real-life, grainy ‘90s home videos played in the background, including one of his mother singing Happy Birthday to him at his fourth birthday. While the crowd was likely thinking they should call and check in with their moms, the multi-platinum rapper immediately turned the energy back up with his song Happy, before addressing the crowd for the first time.

After asking the crowd to give it up for his drummer, Rico Nichols, who performed a solo that would have made Rush’s Neil Peart proud, he said, “I’m not in a talkative mood, but I appreciate you guys for coming out here tonight. It means so much … to travel around the world and do this for a living is amazing and I got you guys to thank.”

While he may not have been comfortable directly addressing the crowd, he sure knew how to get them going and put on a show as he moved to a small stage near the back of the floor to perform his biggest hit, Let You Down, from the 2017 album Perception.

He walked through the crowd to get back to the stage, revelling in the fan connection to close off his set with more dazzling wordplay and vulnerable storytelling.

Whereas NF let his production and lyrics do much of the talking, his opening act relished in interacting with the crowd. Having just released his second album, North Carolina-born Cordae, 26, is one of the fastest-rising rappers in the game today, bringing old-school lyricism into hip-hop’s current soundscape.

“Winnipeg, how we feeling tonight? Let me tell you about myself,” Cordae said, before grabbing the microphone with shades on to perform his hit C. Carter (referencing the 2005 basketball movie Coach Carter) from his 2022 sophomore album, From a Birds Eye View. The song tells his story via poignant lyrics with new-school flair over a soulful beat.

Cordae took off the shades, began bouncing up and down, and changed the whole vibe into a party as he aggressively launched into the hard-hitting Have Mercy off his 2019 Grammy-nominated solo debut, The Lost Boy. Another highlight of the set included one of his newest singles, Doomsday, featuring a pre-recorded verse from late rapper Juice WRLD over Eminem’s Role Model beat.

He got the entire arena to light up their phones during Chronicles and orchestrated a call-and-response on his newest single Make Up Your Mind, which sounds like it belongs in Michael Jackson’s catalogue.

While performing his Grammy-nominated single Bad Idea, a song in which he ponders whether it would be such a bad idea to never go home again, Cordae mentioned that he wrote this song when he was at a low point, having been kicked out of his home because of drug addiction. He too opened up about his mental health like NF, only to impart an important message to the crowd that was consistent with his positive, grateful nature throughout his set.

“I’m a living testimony that you can do anything you put your mind to,” he said.

skyler.trepel@winnipegfreepress.com