How Could You Leave Us?

Our society is a drug reliant society. The crisis of drug addiction within our country is one of the deadliest. This crisis unfortunately has not been spoken about within our social media and news outlets, which is when the problem only gets worse. The rapper NF is one of the first music artists to deliver a warning and outcry against the destructive power of pills and how the can transform not only a single life, but the others around them.

On his sophomore album Therapy Session, NF goes into his hardest song known as “How Can You Leave Us?”. NF claims that this song is the most authentic song he has ever penned on another one of his songs “Outro”.

Questions arise when the meaning of the song come into play; such as why would NF’s mother want to leave her children for drugs? Although we will never receive this point of view, I would personally like to know what NF’s mom felt as she was captured by these drugs, her responses could help save others from addiction.

NF’s mother was addicted to prescription drug pills, the addiction was so crippling that NF and his sister had to move in with their father ,whom constantly made NF feel worthless. The mother of NF overdosed and died in 2009 when Nathan was eighteen years old.

The lack of love by his mother and the constant verbal assault from his father helped craft the dark personality of NF, yet further solidified his purpose in life, to write real music. Many people criticize this song saying that the lyrics are too sad and that the song puts you in a sad mood, but this was a reality that NF lived through and is still dealing with. As a culture, we deny that reality by saying that we only promote positive music. This music wasn’t necessarily made to make you sorry for him, but to look at others and realize that many people hide their struggles in life. After all isn’t music supposed to be a medium to express oneself?

A major theme within the video is the lighting used, while this lighting is not only a physical reflection of the lack of sunlight within the NF’s home state of Michigan, the dim lighting provides a visual cue to his emotional struggle. The dark atmosphere also enforces the gloomy and lonely childhood that NF had to live through.

Within most of the video NF is pictured as a child. This may not only show NF’s past self physically, but also show his past innocence that was taken by the pills that took her mom. The lyrics clearly show that NF constantly battled with the question of whether or not his mom cared about him enough to pick him up from an event or even listen to his music with an open mind. This loss of innocence and value helped shape NF into who he is today.

Many shots of the video are face shots of the adult NF with tears streaming down his face, while the surface meaning shows the destruction that pills give to him, there may be a more critical meaning to these scenes. I am curious as to why there are so many shots of him in such distress.

What is even sadder than this video is that this is not only a past reality for NF, but a current reality for so many teens as the opioid epidemic continues to poison the American Culture. The president has made major claims and propose plans to solve this epidemic and hopefully end the cycle that plauges our culture.

NF has done what many artists wont do, put out music that hurts people including himself. But we all must realize it is for a better purpose in life.