Get ready for Abbotsford to look like a ghost town on August 23 as NF has been announced for Rogers Arena in Vancouver.

The Michigan rapper is headed to the West Coast as part of a 47-date swing for his upcoming album HOPE. The HOPE Tour starts in Columbus and wraps this October in London.

First making waves in 2010, the man known to his mom as Nathan John Feuerstein started out as a bedroom rapper obsessed with Eminem, who he’s been compared to more than once. After signing to the Capitol Christian Music Group in 2014, NF crashed into the mainstream with his breakthrough EP NF. A follow-up full-length, Mansion, spawned the hit “Into”, which has popped up everywhere from Madden NFL 16 to Chicago P.D to video games like Apex Legends.

Over the course of his career he’s gone platinum 14 times, multi-platinum five times, and scored two consecutive number one albums on the Billboard 200 with Perception and The Search.

Haven’t, despite all this, heard of NF, which is the first tip-off you’re not from Abbotsford, possess no Morbid Angel records, and probably sleep late on Sunday? That might have everything to do with the fact that he’s typically found in the Christian section of your favourite record store. NF doesn’t tend to swear in his lyrics, and, while he’s all for working through his past issues, seems more at peace with the world than a certain Slim Shady. 

That said, he’ll understandably argue that he wants to be seen first and foremost as a rapper, with faith something that doesn’t necessarily inform his songwriting.

“I’m a Christian, but I’m just an artist,” NF noted in a 2016 interview. I’m a musician. You know what I mean? To me, it’s like if you’re a Christian and you’re a plumber, are you a Christian plumber? That’s the easiest way for me to explain it. I just make music.”

General public tickets for NF go on sale here on Friday (April 7) at 10am.