He spends much of The Search darting in and out of an overbearing rappity-rap snarl-yell that can cut right through you if you don’t relate to his roiling anger. NF also shares Eminem’s shrillness and distorted sense of volume, rapping like he’s putting on the world’s loudest Punch and Judy show. The only real daylight between the two is that NF doesn’t swear.
And like Eminem, he’s from the technical school of rap, where the height of artistry is cramming as many syllables and as much internal rhyme into each bar as possible, nuance be damned.
Like Eminem, NF draws from his traumatic childhood, never shying from ugly thoughts or inner demons. It doesn’t hurt that he models himself after perhaps the most successful white rapper of all time: Eminem, whose brooding persona and twisty delivery NF copies with the reverence of a 16th-century Japanese painter replicating the masters. He’s a lyrical, white, and Christian rapper in an industry where all three identities can provide a fast track to a devoted audience. It’s no mystery where NF’s following comes from.
