Artists use music videos for various different reasons. Oftentimes, they will present videos for their music which shows scenes that might explain their lyrics at the same time. Many times these videos are made in order to make a point, to reach to the community, and maybe even attempt to change people’s outcomes of their lives today. It appears that Lil Wayne took time and wrote about this song because it may have related to something he has in his life. As many other artists, he attempts to use his experience to influence the lives of others.  In the music video, “How to Love,” Lil Wayne uses the location of a clinic to show that the environment one is raised in, often guides one choice and outcome of their life.

The location in the first scene of Lil Wayne’s music video begins in a women’s clinic with a girl on the bed and the doctor standing over her.  In the scene, there is a woman with her doctor and a nurse who appears as though she is getting ready to have an abortion. The doctor is preparing for the procedure and getting his tools ready, which includes things such as a syringe and a speculum. Both of these instruments are intrusive to the human body. The speculum in particular allows the viewer to assume is going to getting prepared to have an abortion. Later in the scene, the woman appears very nervous, scared, and conflicted on her life-changing decision. She ultimately panics and escapes the room without getting the life-ending procedure on the embryo and runs down the hallway to leave signally she has changed her mind. This scene shows that she had made a choice would impact the outcome the rest her life. If she had let the abortion continue, she would have to live with guilt of killing another human-being for the rest of her life. On the other hand, choosing to keep the child will impact the quality of both of their lives, especially if she was not ready or able to care for the baby. Since she ended up keeping the baby in a bad environment, the mom has a huge responsibility raising the daughter in a right direction. Lil Wayne uses the image of the women running down the hallway in the clinic to symbolize her avoiding the life-changing problem. She changed her mind and stopped the life-changing procedure, resulting in her running away. This act of her being in the clinic and avoiding the medical procedure continues her cycle of a bad lifestyle.

Lil Wayne choses a women’s clinic because it is easily recognized as a place for life changing moments. In the video, the clinic appears to be very sterile, uncomfortable, and without any color, which makes the viewer believe it is an institution rather than a doctor’s office. Doctors’ offices are usually made up of colorful and comfortable furniture that makes the patient feel satisfied, yet clinics are not. The term clinic generally implies that they are free or very low cost to the patients, therefore they are usually a resource for people from low-income background, who do not have enough money to pay for a regular doctor. When women go to a clinic, it is likely to create fear and possibly shame for having to be in such a negative place. Lil Wayne uses this location as a way to reach out to the poor black women that may have had a bad circumstance like the girl in the video. It says to them that he understands why they are there and what may have lead them to that place. Many of these women may not have been shown how to truly be loved, so it is obvious Lil Wayne wants to change their past behavior. Using this location was a way to show the viewer that this woman has very little little resources and a negative life circumstances.

In scene two, the video shows her mother and the baby growing into a young woman. It appears that this is the daughter that was not aborted because the older woman stands behind her very protectively like a mother. They both have a look of concern and stress on their faces in the same clinic, with the same doctor, but the daughter is not seeking an abortion. Instead, she took at test for a sexual transmitted infection.  Soon, the doctor receives the test results and shows the young woman is positive for HIV. When the daughter hears the results, she quickly gets up and starts running down the hallway when she realizes that she has made a huge mistake that may cost her life. Now, the young woman is following her mother’s footsteps as her mother did when she ran down the same hallway in the first scene of the video. The fear and realization of bad choices they have made in life is hard to handle and they simply want to run away from all of their problem. 

Lil Wayne chose to use a mother and daughter because they were living the same lifestyle but may have a different life-changing decision to make. Using the two generations shows that the same situation that the mother went through has now been created with her daughter. He also uses the same clinic location as the mother showing, they are still are poor and they have not done anything to change it. The daughter repeats many of the same choices the mother made. She is in a similar situation her mom was in, which was the wrong way to love herself. Again, the hallway symbolizes the same path her mother took. She is running because she wants to escape the bad choices she has made and has to deal with for the rest of her life. Lil Wayne uses this motif to explain that the choices and environment the mother made directly affected those that the daughter made. Ultimately, creating the same life of torment and terrible choices she grew up in.

Finally, in the video,” How to Love,” Lil Wayne portrays a young girl that grew up in a bad environment basically teaching herself how to love and how to live. These examples set out by her mother were not positive for her and lead to some very bad things happening to her. When she grew up, she lived a life that was not a good one; sleeping around, partying, and trying to find love in all the wrong places. She was not raised the right way as a good child should be. Her understanding of love was portrayed as very negative, which had her loving others in the same way as her mother did. It all started with her mother’s decision on how to raise a child. Lil Wayne choice of location in the clinic and its reputation of the pasts symbolizes people traveling down the wrong path like their parents may have taught them. This was shown through a mother and daughter experience in a clinic. Overall, this video is likely to be very impactful to women who have gone through or are experiencing this same type of situation themselves. 
