Lil Wayne's Shocking and Powerful New Video for How to Love

Posted on August 25, 2011

Here is Lil Wayne's new video for the single "How to Love." The video is pretty intense. It tells the story of an abused wife and mother whose downward spiral and life story is repeated in a vicious cycle with her young daughter.

The story's touchstone is a visit to the ob/gyn. The first time we see the mother, she's considering having an abortion, but decides not to. She has the baby, but the father ends up in prison. Her little girl ends up being sexually abused while her mother is sleeping. The trauma and despair of this leads the young woman (actress Chanta Patton) into stripping and prostitution, and she is eventually seen in the doctor's office being told she is HIV positive.

It's quite upsetting, but director Chris Robinson and Lil Wayne wanted do talk about abuse in the community. Robinson told MTV, "I have a daughter, Wayne has a daughter, and he really wanted to tell the story. We were talking about statistics of abuse in our community. We were talking about really telling this story for every young woman in the world."

Just as you think you can't watch any more, Chris then shows what the story could have been with different choices. The mother has the baby, but raises her on her own and doesn't allow the abusive father near her little girl. The young girl grows up, she goes to college, gets a good job, meets a nice guy and gets married. When she visits the ob-gyn, she and her mother get the happy news she's pregnant. Message: the girl's story doesn't have to end badly if society intervenes. It's a heavy message, and the video has been criticized quite a bit. We think it's awesome. The entire video is very anti-abuse. It is respectful and supportive of women.

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