The Michael Knowles Show - Michael Knowles REACTS To "Fear" By NF

Episode Date: November 14, 2025

NF isn’t just one of the biggest rappers in America—he’s one of the few chart-topping artists who stays completely clean while still delivering raw, emotional, and gut-punching music. In this video, Michael Knowles reacts to NF’s new track “Fear” and breaks down why his honesty, intensity, and lyrical depth resonate with millions.  Whether you’re an NF die-hard or hearing him for the first time, this reaction dives into the meaning behind the music, the cultural impact of artists who refuse to follow the industry’s moral decay, and why “Fear” might be NF’s most powerful song yet.  Watch Michael’s full breakdown—and let us know your favorite NF track in the comments. - - - Today's Sponsor: PreBorn! - Help save babies from abortion at https://preborn.com/KNOWLES - - - Privacy Policy: https://www.dailywire.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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See you on the room. Hey, everybody. It's your hip-hop cultural maven wonder Michael Knowles. and I'm here with a new song by Unf. The song is called Fear. Unf has just come out with it. Take it away. Hello, darkness, my old friend, knocking at my door again, begging me to come outside.

Let you back into my life. I'd be strong enough to lock the doors and keep them shut. This is like an American Mumford and Sons. But not today I'm desperate. Which I like. So go ahead and come on in. So go ahead and come on in. So go ahead and come on in.

OCD is worse than ever hands are bleeding. Maybe I should take your pillstone. Know what's going on with me some days. I actually think I might be skittal. Frantic poly not but even writing this is making me begin to spend. making me begin to spiral, oh God. Made a promise to myself I wouldn't let the fear back in, but then I did, though. Told the world that I was sick of running, then went back to running.

What a joke? Disappointed at me too. I thought I finally had finally made a breakthrough guess not. It's the same song in doubt you have seen it before. Darkness holds out his hand, then we walk to the floor. Every decision made easy mind anymore. Like a pub, be with strings, I just don't have a choice What's the truth? What's a lie? Help me God help me Lord face your fears dry your eyes

Grammar died what's the point lost the keys lost my hope lost my will lost my joy lost a friend lost my hope lost my faith lost my voice Hmm Deathing back watching my man's shy bird to while I hold the gas can asking God if he started this far. Put a pause here. Very interesting line. So he opens up, you know, it's kind of happy little folksy song. Hello Darkness, my old friend, line from Simon and Garfunkel,

but done in a, I don't know, like a fokey, Mumford and Sunsy kind of way. He says, you know, usually I lock the doors to keep the darkness out, but today I'm going to let it in, and I'm going to look at it right in the face. And he's tempted to go back to his drugs and his pills. And, you know, he thought he finally had made a breakthrough, but it's there. You know, sin is still there crouching in the corner waiting to devour him. And then he's in a church, and he's washing his hands in water. It's a symbol of baptism. But you're getting another image, too, which is gasoline.

So is it the water that will save him, or is it the gasoline that's going to burn him? everything down. He's standing back watching his mansion burn to ash while I hold the gas can, asking God if he started this fire, which at first glance seems ridiculous. It seems as if he's pointing out, no, no, no, my problems are my own fault. I'm doing this. I'm the one holding the gas can. I'm burning the mansion down. And I'm blaming God. Isn't that so ridiculous? I need to take responsibility for my own actions. But it does raise a question about causality. The reality of the concepts of your question are just as questionable as what you're questioning. Well, God made me and God made the world. And so why do you make me like this?

Why do you make me like this? Why do you make me like this? Why do you make a world in which Adam and Eve had the free will to abuse their freedom and to kick us out of the garden and to leave me right here? Now should I blame God? And the answer is no, but it's, that's, when When you let the darkness in a little bit and you really face that question, it's a little more complicated. There's a couple of mysteries in that question. Who's to blame here? What's the relationship between Will and Grace? Not the 90s sitcom, but what's that relationship?

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Is this what you want now on the verge on the edge? Is this what you want it? Petrified, scared to death. Is this what you wanted? Praying to God, desperate. Is this what you wanted? What you wanted? Is this what you wanted? Hanging on by a threat.

Is this what you wanted? Empty heart, nothing left. Is this what you wanted? Breaking down spiral. Is this what you wanted? What you wanted? Is this what you wanted? Is this what you wanted?

Is this what you wanted? Wow, yeah, it's really quite good for a pop song. It's quite good. You can get that image at the end. You know, the image at the beginning is, am I going to start popping my pills again? Then you go on this whole journey and he's in the church and he's trying to wash his hands in the water,

but then there's the flip image of the gasoline, and he burns it all down, and he himself catches on fire, and then he ends up stumbling and crashes onto the rug, and you think, oh, he just did a bunch of drugs. That's all been a kind of a weird, and the final question that we have pertains to God's active will and his passive will, because God creates everything, he sustains everything.

In a certain sense, you know, he wills the bad things to happen. But he doesn't actively will the bad things to happen because he gives us free will. And so we play a role in creation, and he passively wills for that to be the case. But he actively wills our good. So he doesn't create evil. Evil's a privation of the good. And it's very good. This song, I don't listen to a lot of pop music,

but this song is, without question, a kind of work of Christian art. And it's much, much better than like any modern Christian music. It's quite good, actually. Good job. Good job. Okay, I'm Michael Nol. See you next time. How many discounts does USA auto insurance offer? Too many to say here.

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