Michican rapper Nate Feuerstein may find that his first London show feels like a bit of a letdown next week.
He’s playing in Camden’s tiny Assembly venue, above a pub, when three weeks ago he had America’s number one album. It should suit his underdog image, at least. While releasing three albums as NF, he has drawn on his tough upbringing in a small town with a mother who died from a drug overdose in 2009 and her physically abusive boyfriend.
Lest anyone accuse him of sounding rather too much like Eminem, with his fast flow that gets gruffer as he gets angrier, he’s way ahead of you: “I’d been so heavily influenced by Em, but artists that don’t grow out of that don’t go anywhere. Ultimately, I came to understand that what Eminem stood for above all else was ‘be yourself,’” he has said.
Now he has a worthy addition to the sub-genre of sad-hop with his piano hit Let You Down. With its 54 million Spotify streams it has just entered our top 40, while in the US it’s been a number one on the Christian chart.
Yes, he’s a rapper who’s a Christian but not a “Christian rapper”, he stresses. Either way there’s a lot less swearing in his oeuvre, but that’s far from its chief appeal.
Nov 8, Camden Assembly, NW1 (020 7424 0800, camdenassembly.com)