How to Love

## Single by Lil Wayne

### **Producer(s)**

Lil Wayne (exec.) \ Birdman (exec.) \ Slim (exec.) \ Tha Drummahz (co.) \ Detail

"**How to Love**" is a song by American rapper Lil Wayne. It was released on May 26, 2011 as the third single and twelfth track from his ninth studio album, *Tha Carter IV* (2011). He said of the song, "When I listen to it I get goosebumps. And I feel like the song is gonna take me somewhere that I've never been musically."

It peaked at No. 5 on the *Billboard* Hot 100. He performed the song at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards, where it received a nomination for "Best Video with a Message" the following year in 2012.

## Music video

The music video premiered August 23, 2011 on MTV Jams as "Jam of the Week." It was directed by Chris Robinson and added to Lil Wayne's VEVO channel on August 24. In an interview with MTV News, co-writer and producer Detail revealed that the video had been written entirely by Wayne himself, and felt that the video would "have a big, big effect, and it's going to shock you because [of] the perspective you might look at it as." He added that the visual "crosses rap's boundaries" with the song's unusual style. Darris Love, Birdman and Tristan Wilds make a cameo appearance.

The video begins with a young woman deciding to not get an abortion and running out of the hospital. Her child is born a girl and lives through tough times with her single mother, due to her physically abusive, wife-beating father being incarcerated. As an adolescent, her mother's boyfriend molests her. When she becomes a teenager, she is sexually promiscuous. Reaching adulthood, she has two children and becomes a stripper. A customer from the strip club pays her to have sex with him; subsequently, she is diagnosed with HIV. She runs out of the hospital, paralleling to her own mother at the beginning of the video. The visual then backtracks and shows an alternate life that the girl could have lived. Her mother would move into her own mother's house and even marry a better man, with her daughter as the flower girl and witness to a healthy, respectful and loving marriage. In the end, the daughter grows up to be smarter and more mature, and graduates from high school, making her mother and grandmother proud. When she becomes an adult, she is in the same hospital again awaiting a test result. The doctor tells her she is pregnant, and she is happy and hugs her mother, thanking her for teaching her "how to love."

MTV News remarked, "Maybe the message is dramatically overdone, but [it] sparks discussion much like TLC did with their cautionary 1995 video for 'Waterfalls.'"

## Personnel

* Alexander Dilliplane – assistant mixer
* Brian Gardner – mastering engineer
* Bryan "Birdman" Williams – executive producer
* Dwayne "Lil Wayne" Carter Jr. – vocals, writer, executive producer
* Edward "JewFro" Lidow – assistant recording engineer
* Fabian Marascuillo – mixer
* Jermaine Preyan – writer
* Joshua Berkman – A&R
* LaNelle Seymour – writer
* Michael Cadahia – recording engineer
* Noel "Detail" Fisher – writer, producer
* Ronald "Slim" Williams – executive producer
* Tha Drummahz – co-producer

## Lyrics

**Lyrics**
[Intro]

Cut the music up

A little louder, yeah

[Chorus]

You had a lot of crooks try to steal your heart

Never really had luck, couldn't never figure out

How to love, how to love

You had a lot of moments that didn't last forever

Now you in a corner, tryna put it together

How to love, how to love

For a second you were here, now you over there

It's hard not to stare the way you're moving your body

Like you never had a love, never had a love

[Verse 1]

When you was just a youngin, your looks were so precious

But now you're grown up, so fly it's like a blessing

But you can't have a man look at you for five seconds

Without you being insecure

You never credit yourself, so when you got older

It seems like you came back ten times over

Now you're sitting here in this damn corner

Looking through all your thoughts and looking over your shoulder

[Chorus]

See you had a lot of crooks trying to steal your heart

Never really had luck, couldn't never figure out

How to love, how to love

See you had a lot of moments that didn't last forever

Now you in a corner tryna put it together

How to love, how to love

For a second you were here, now you over there

It's hard not to stare the way you're moving your body

Like you never had a love, had a love

[Verse 2]

You had a lot of dreams that transform to visions

The fact that you saw the world affected all your decisions

But it wasn't your fault, wasn't in your intentions

To be the one here talking to me, be the one listening

But I admire your poppin' bottles and dippin'

Just as much as you admire bartending and stripping

Baby, so don't be mad, nobody else trippin'

You see a lot of crooks and them crooks still crook

[Chorus]

You see, you had a lot of crooks try to steal your heart

Never really had luck, couldn't never figure out

How to love, how to love

See, you had a lot of moments that didn't last forever

Now you in this corner tryna put it together

How to love, how to love

[Bridge]

See, I just want you to know that you deserve the best

You're beautiful, you're beautiful

Yeah, and I want you to know

You're far from the usual, far from the usual

[Chorus]

You see, you had a lot of crooks try to steal your heart

Never really had luck, couldn't never figure out

How to love, how to love

See, you had a lot of moments that didn't last forever

Now you in this corner tryna put it together

How to love, how to love

See, you had a lot of crooks try to steal your heart

Never really had luck, couldn't never figure out

How to love, how to love, yeah

You had a lot of moments that didn't last forever

Now you in this corner, tryna put it together

How to love, how to love

## References

1. ↑ Osei, Anthony (May 26, 2011). "Listen: Lil Wayne "How to Love"". *Complex*.
2. ↑ Markman, Rob (May 27, 2011). "Lil Wayne Says New Single 'How to Love' Gives Him 'Goosebumps'". *MTV*.
3. ↑ "Lil Wayne's 30 Biggest Billboard Hits". *Billboard*. September 27, 2012.
4. ↑ Markman, Rob (May 31, 2011). "Lil Wayne's 'How to Love' Video Will 'Shock You,' Producer Says". *MTV*. Archived from the original on June 3, 2011.
5. ↑ Markman, Rob (August 24, 2011). "Lil Wayne Drops Deep Messages in 'How to Love' Video". *MTV*.