Rapper NF brings intensity and vulnerability to PPG Paints concert

NF, the stage name of Michigan-born rapper Nathan Feuerstein, may not be a household name, but to the cheering crowd Wednesday night at PPG Paints Arena, he was a huge presence.

On tour to promote his latest album, 2023’s “Hope,” NF bared his soul with an intensity that can knock the wind out of you. He is known for the vulnerability of his lyrics — many of his songs focus on his mental health and the impossible seesaw of making a career in the music industry.

Taking the stage to great fanfare and dark, percussive music at 8:30 p.m. (on the dot), NF performed a 90-minute set that felt, at times, like therapy — in a good way. Kicking the night off with the title track from “Hope,” he started a trend that would continue through the set, building songs to a crescendo that crashed over the arena like a breaking wave.

This feat was achieved with the help of his drummer Rico Nichols. NF agreed; taking a break to talk to the audience a little more than halfway through the show, he implored everyone to “give it up for my drummer, he’s been killing it.”

The assembled crowd agreed. Nichols rocked several solos that seemed like they should have required an extra set of arms.

After a string of tracks from the new album, NF went back to his 2019’s “The Search,” performing the title track, followed by “Leave Me Alone,” “My Stress” and “Time.” This run in the set was particularly dark, focusing on NF’s OCD diagnosis, anxiety and relationship struggles — but it also felt cathartic.

On “Leave Me Alone,” he rapped “I hold up my balloons and cover up my face/I can feel them weighing on me every day/I should let them go and watch them float away.” For much of the song, he carried a literal bunch of balloons around the stage.

NF didn’t lack for energy at any point. He was constantly bounding and dancing around the stage, putting his whole body behind his voice. He made good use of risers and platforms, as well as a smaller B-stage at the opposite end of the arena, where he traveled for “Let You Down” and “Gone.”

It’s easy to see the influence of fellow Michigander Eminem on NF’s style; he raps with a similar intensity and rawness, but also has a talent for the kind of tongue-twistingly fast rhymes for which Slim Shady is known. In concert, it’s hard to keep up with every lyric, especially with such driving backing music, but NF seemed impressively inexhaustible.

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He’s also a singer and showed off a lovely and emotive voice with evening’s closer, “Running.” It was one of several moments of genuine sentimentality. Another came earlier, when he performed “Mama,” a heart-melting tribute to his deceased mother, lit with the phone flashlights of the entire audience. Behind him on the screen played a series of home movies from his childhood.

“I don’t take this for granted,” he said sincerely at around the midpoint of the show. “I was talking to someone yesterday, we played in Detroit yesterday. … And one of the first club shows we ever played there was like 300 people. I would walk out of the show and be like, ‘This is crazy, man.’” He gestured out at the thousands present at PPG Paints Arena. “Now this is crazy. So thank you.”

Beyond being powerful and personal, the show was just plain entertaining. NF is clearly talented, and he has a dedicated following — three of his albums have made the Top 10 of Billboard’s albums chart, with “Hope” debuting at No. 2, and all without a catchy, ubiquitous radio single. He has flair as a performer, hyping up the crowd with plenty of “let’s go’s” and letting them sing some of the catchier choruses on their own.

It takes a lot of talent and vulnerability to convey such complex, not-always-sunny emotions — and make it mesmerizing to watch. If that was NF’s mission, he certainly accomplished it.