NF is the stage name of rapper and composer Nate Feuerstein from Gladwin, Michigan. Feuerstein endured a hardship-filled childhood in which his parents divorced, his mother's boyfriend physically abused him, and his mother eventually killed herself. Music was his escape, and he began recording songs on a karaoke machine, with instrumentals on one microphone and his raps in the other. Placing second in a nationwide Fine Arts Festival rap competition in 2008, and first in Michigan the following year, he independently released a debut album, Moments, in 2010.