SAN FRANCISCO — Rhymesmith NF didn’t fully address his audience until well near the end of his concert at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium on Sunday. When he did, it was solely to lighten the mood. The Michigander mentioned catching a counterfeit merch seller—who recognized him and tried to explain away that someone else had just given it to him.

Then the rapper, born Nate Feuerstein, held an informal poll, asking the audience to shout their support for either French fries or tater tots, and Fruity or Cocoa Pebbles.

“I don’t have anything else to talk about. Do you have anything else we should talk about?” he asked his fans, before coming up with one last fan question: Which of his songs are the worst? After hearing some questionable answers he faux-declared the show was over, and he was leaving.

All jokes aside, NF did more communicating through his deeply naked and personal storytelling than most artists accomplish with the mid-song banter. He’s been through it, and there’s not a lot of deciphering needed. But much like his latest album, HOPE, the HOPE Tour is about sharing that a bad story doesn’t have to end as one.

NF’s crew did a good job squeezing in what’s an arena tour in much of the country into the smaller Bill Graham Civic. The production included a multitiered stage with two sets of lit-up stairs connecting the levels and talented drummer Rico Nichols splitting them in half. There were smoke cannons, lasers, a catwalk that extended into the audience and a tiny stage at the back of the floor that momentarily lifted NF upward to the lip of the balcony section. The setlist pretty evenly split the difference between HOPE and 2019 platinum-certified album The Search. The majority of the rest came from 2021 mixtape CLOUDS, also a hit.

What all of his albums have in common is Feuerstein’s vulnerability and completely bare acknowledgement of the demons he’s faced. Up until the new album, his recent work has been on the more pessimistic side—beautifully composed and recorded songs notwithstanding—but HOPE was a pivot and an embrace of silver linings.

Following a 20-minute, one-note synth dirge, rather than the traditional uptempo music to get a crowd pumped, NF made his entrance with the new album’s title track, standing at the back of the stage before slowing walking forward. The song’s funereal piano intro sounded sharp, before the strings swelled. The melodies all night came courtesy of a backing track, though Nichols, who’s played with the likes of Kendrick Lamar, Ye and 2 Chainz, greatly lifted the instrumentals all night long.

“MOTTO,” also from the new album, could also be called “mission statement,” as NF spit out a list of grievances with the music industry and how he’ll never change for fame or fortune. He walked along the stage, high-fiving fans. The trio of opening new songs was capped with “CAREFUL,” which features Cordae, who both opened the show and then also made an appearance here—popping out from stage left just in time for his verse.

The performances hopped back and forth between aggressive and hard-hitting songs with a speedy staccato multisyllabic rhymes that have for years drawn a comparison with fellow Michigander Eminem, and outright pop-driven tracks with moving melodies.

Fans screamed the lyrics to “The Search” as NF walked from off-stage pushing a shopping cart with black helium-filled balloons tied to it. The song began with an angry and aggressive flow set to an orchestral instrumental, but quickly escalated, with him spitting at a machine-gun pace. The dramatics climbed again on “Leave Me Alone,” during which he danced with the balloon strings now in his hand. Others in this sphere included clap-back song “PAID MY DUES” and “WHY.”

“A lot of people know me, but they don’t know me well,” he repeated on the latter, a song that felt like it carried the weight of the world.

As for the other songs? They may have sounded happier, but they generally weren’t.

“I just want relief from my stress,” NF sang on the melodic “My Stress,” over a staccato beat.

The emotional core of the show came on the one-two punch of “MAMA” and “HAPPY.” On the former, he sings directly to his mother, who died of a drug overdose when he was younger. Old family video clips rolled on the screen behind him, showing his parents and him as a young boy, from happier times. As the song came to a close, he sat down. When it came time to deliver his most emotional lines on Sunday, he’d either sit down or step onto one of the small risers at the sides of the stage and lean into it.

And the latter song isn’t about being happy as much as wondering how it’s possible to be happy if you’re NF. Feuerstein asked fans to “sing as loud as you can.”

NF’s set seemed to blow by in an instant. Following emotional melodic pop song “Time” and a few others, Nichols got the spotlight all to himself for what was essentially an encore break—he performed a rock drum solo—NF reappeared at the back of the venue’s floor on the smaller stage to sing “Let You Down” and “GONE.” The second of the two presented a pretty blend of soft singing with bombastic instrumentation. After he returned to the main stage, he continued with the poppy “RUNNING” before ramping the pace back up with a couple of other songs including his hit “CLOUDS.”

North Carolinian rapper Cordae opened the show, taking the stage five minutes early.

The 25-year-old featured several songs from his latest record, 2022’s From a Birds Eye View. Those included “C Carter,” with him singing snippets of Shaggy’s “Angel” and the aggressive “Sinister.” He was backed by a DJ, who joined him with rapping on a couple of songs. During “Have Mercy,” Cordae hopped around in place like a boxer. Then during “Kung Fu,” he started moonwalking. But dancing and rapping weren’t his only skills. Much like NF, Cordae showed off a smooth singing voice on “Bad Idea” (which he finished a cappella),

“Chronicles” (with some partial lyrics from Destiny’s Child’s “Say My Name”) and the soulful and poppy “Make Up Your Mind.”

Not to be out-sadded by NF, he preceded “Broke as Fuck” with a sort of testimony about his own troubles he’s had to overcome.

Follow editor Roman Gokhman at Twitter.com/RomiTheWriter. Follow photographer Derek Fisher at Instagram.com/dfishswish.