How To Love - Lil Wayne

·         Before the actual song starts, the video begins with a woman lying down being told to stay calm etc. After a few seconds, you find out that she's going to have an abortion, but she panics and runs out of the room crying, which is when the music starts.

·         The video exchanges between shots of Lil Wayne, to woman’s life. Starting with showing the baby crying but you can see a man and a woman fighting.

·         “Now you're in the corner, trying to put it together.” At this point, she's picking up the baby, trying to stop it crying whilst in the background, the man is walking away.

·         The next scene is set a few years later, where the child has grown up. The mother and child are visiting  - presumably – the father in prison. The little girl looks happy to see him, and all is fine until the couple start arguing and she is dragged away.

·         Again, a few years later, is medium-close up shot of her looking like the innocent teenage girl. “But you can’t have a man look at you for five seconds, without you feeling insecure.” At this point, you see the male in the background watching her as she watches the TV and the mother is asleep on him. He soon gets up and tries to drag her away quietly, so the mother won’t wake up.

·         The video goes on and then you find out she is now working as a stripper to earn money for the two kids she has. We figure she is a single parent as there is no ‘father’ figure seen. She takes a shot of alcohol and is looking into the mirror crying. “The way you moving your body like you never had love.” She clearly doesn’t want to do this.

·         Her clothing is provocative – as it has to be for what she does – and also shows how vulnerable she is.

·         “You had a lot of crooks, trying to steal your heart.” Now, the man who gave her money on the stage is now leading her away. It then cuts to a medium shot of her sitting smoking, looking unhappy and miserable, as she watches the guy put money on the table and then leave. She shoots him a small, weak smile before he does.

·         The whole video up to this point, shows how lonely and unhappy she is and how messed up things have been. “Never really had luck, couldn’t ever figure out how to love.”

·         The music cuts out and we’re back at the hospital with the same nurse and doctor, but it’s the daughter being seen to, not the mother. After she finds out she has HIV, she runs out of the hospital and down the corridor, just like her mother did.

·         “See I just want you to know, that you deserve the best, you're beautiful.” The whole video rewinds back to the scene of the baby.

·         After this, it goes down a different route and shows the life she had if the mother had of just walked away. It goes through all the same years, each time the girl is happy and so is the mother as she gets married and is treat right – this means, the girl grows up in a good environment and sees what it’s like to be loved. When she's an older teenager and she's sitting on the same steps as she was previously, she's studying and then a boy comes along and this time she seems happier.

·         The whole video uses quick cuts to go from scene to scene.

·         She graduates and finds out she's pregnant (back at the hospital again.) When the song is finished, she thanks her mother for ‘teaching her how to love’, referring to the title.

·         The whole video and song shows the impact one thing or one decision could make on the rest of your life – or someone else’s.