Following the release of “The Search,” off his fourth studio album of the same name, NF returns with “When I Grow Up”—a song about the obstacles he faced before becoming a rapper. The track is produced by NF with the help of Tennessee producer Tommee Profitt. Its accompanying music video is produced and directed by Nathan Feuerstein and Patrick Tohill.
NF opens the song by expressing his reluctancy to go to college and work a 9 to 5:
I could go to college, get in debt like everybody else
Graduate and prolly get a job that doesn’t pay the bills
The video shows NF working for the sanitation department and then in the food service industry, jobs that didn’t provide sufficient funds for his and his family’s survival. Interestingly, NF began rapping as a form of therapy rather than for the money. He said as much on his March 2015 track, “Notepad”:
Never did it for the money
We ever make it big, I'ma give it to the family
Later on in “When I Grow Up,” NF discusses the difficulty of making interesting songs:
Anybody wanna hear me rap? ‘No’
C' mon, let me play a couple tracks, ‘No’
C' mon, I can spit it really fast, ‘No’
The video concludes by showing NF’s transition from rapping for a few people to rocking out on stage for thousands.
Check out all the lyrics to “When I Grow Up” on Genius now.
