A discussion about artists who help both others and themselves when it comes to music about mental health wouldn’t be complete without mentioning NF. Christian rapper NF often uses music itself to explain what it means to him and how he uses it in his life. Twenty One Pilots and Billie Eilish’s music is usually presented with beautiful metaphors that oftentimes require sitting down and paying close attention to discover. NF’s music is straightforward, and brutally honest. NF has discussed a multitude of topics in his music, from depression to anxiety to child abuse and, most recently given a new diagnosis, OCD. He is unafraid to be vulnerable in his music, openly claiming he attends therapy, a choice that led licensed clinical professional counselor Grant Stenzel of Stenzel Clinical Services to recommend NF’s music to parents of children, encouraging them to allow their kids to address “uncomfortable emotions” and to feel their emotions as a way of healing instead of trying to fix it right away, as parents often do. Stenzel suggests NF’s music because the rapper is extremely honest about his struggles, and a grand example of someone who feels his emotions as a way of healing—through music. The final lyrics of his song “Therapy Session” addresses NF’s use of music as a way of healing directly
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 do this /
And He also gave me this as an outlet /
And that's what music is for me /
...
​
I need this /
This is a therapy for me
NF expands upon this idea in his most recent album The Search on the track “When I Grow Up,” detailing how he used to dream of hearing his words sung back to him so he felt less alone
Similarly to Twenty Ones Pilots, NF claims music to be an outlet for him. That is not where the resemblance between the two artists stops. “Therapy Session” goes on to discuss the anger NF feels toward people who don’t respect the impact of his music, and instead write it off as being too “violent” for their kids
These kids, they come to my shows /
With tears in they eyes /
Imagine someone looking at you /
And saying your music's the reason that they are alive
…
How you gon' tell me my music does not have a message /
When I'm looking out at this crowd full of people I know I affected?
It sounds like a lot of these parents who immediately write off NF’s music as “violent” share the same thoughts as my
grandmother—that music that boldly addresses the thoughts of people struggling with things like depression, anxiety, and OCD is not conducive to a young audience. But NF continues to reject that ideal, claiming he
knows his music has positively affected people. Much to the likely surprise of skeptics such as these parents and my grandmother, music like this isn't encouraging kids to hurt themselves, it is doing the opposite. It is inspiring them to keep going, giving them hope through telling them they are not alone
NF’s music has often moved me to tears. I discovered his Therapy Session album when I was in high school, before I ever really had successfully found music with any substance that spoke to me. Before I discovered music from artists like Twenty One Pilots, Juice WRLD and NF, love and heartbreak and alcohol seemed to be what all music was about. Although I enjoyed listening to it, my life wasn’t significantly changed or improved by anything I listened to beyond getting a mood boost from a catchy pop song. The music didn’t wiggle itself inside the contents of my body, underneath my ribs or skull and make a home there. I hadn’t been in love, I hadn’t had my heart broken, and I certainly wasn’t enraptured by house parties or recreational drugs. However, I was living with this growing despair inside me that I hadn’t yet named, and NF’s music was the first that filled me with genuine sympathy and the beginnings of empathy. I listened to the entire album start to finish sitting in the recliner of my parent's living room, too frozen and captivated by his words to move to a more secluded spot in my house. I was blown away by his vulnerability, his honesty, his lack of hesitancy to openly acknowledge what terrible things had happened to him, the thoughts that threatened his brain, the anger and contempt he held for the world.
I found it all extremely admirable, and to this day my favorite song is "Mansion" from his 2015 album with the same title. The song is shockingly raw and beautifully constructed. NF raps over a piano melody about his mind, which he personifies with a fleshed-out metaphor of a mansion. He takes the listener on a tour, explaining what each room contains: the basement, where he writes words no one will see, the room with the trauma of his child abuse, and finally, his heart, the room no one is allowed in. It is haunting and truthful, Fleurie featuring to sing the hook, the words that have stuck with me since
My mind is a home I’m trapped in /
And it’s lonely inside this mansion