NF is the stage name of rapper and composer Nate Feuerstein, whose raw emotions and honest lyrics launched him into the upper reaches of the charts with his 2017 album Perception. Initially emerging in 2010, NF gained wider attention after his 2015 album, Mansion, and 2016 follow-up, Therapy Session, both reached number one on the Christian charts. That success set the stage for his 2017 breakthrough. Buoyed by the Top 20 hit "Let You Down," Perception hit number one on the Billboard 200. NF's second Billboard 200 chart-topper, The Search, arrived in 2019 and was followed in 2021 by the mixtape Clouds.

Born in 1991 in Gladwin, Michigan, Feuerstein endured a hardship-filled childhood in which his parents divorced, his mother's boyfriend physically abused him, and his mother died. Music was his escape, and he began recording songs on a karaoke machine, with instrumentals on one microphone and his raps in the other. Feuerstein independently released his debut album, Moments, in 2010. It attracted the attention of Xist Music, which signed him to a recording deal in 2012, by which time he had taken the stage name NF. The label announced the release of an EP that same year, but it never appeared, and NF and Xist parted ways.

NF spent the next two years looking for a label and working with local producer Tommee Profitt in his studio; they eventually released "Wake Up." The song prompted a self-titled EP late in the summer of 2014, including a Manny Marroquin remix of "Wake Up." His debut album, Mansion, was released in early 2015, reaching number 62 on the Billboard 200 and topping the Christian chart. The aptly titled Therapy Session followed in 2016, topping both the Rap and Christian charts and almost reaching the overall Top Ten.

The following summer saw the release of the singles "Outro" and "Green Lights." Both were included on NF's third studio long-player, Perception, which arrived later that October and debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. The platinum album's biggest hit turned out to be its third single, the ubiquitous radio staple "Let You Down," which topped the U.S. Christian Songs charts and peaked just outside the Top Ten on the Hot 100.

While that song still maintained radio airplay -- and additional album single "Lie" was also certified platinum -- NF issued "The Search," the first single from 2019's The Search, which arrived that July. His second consecutive chart-topper, the emotive set featured guest Sasha Sloan on "Only." Relatively quiet for 2020, he issued the non-album track "Chasing_(Demo)," which featured Australian fan Mikayla Sippel. He also released the song "Paid My Dues," which was then included along with the title track on his 2021 mixtape Clouds. ~ Steve Leggett, Rovi