How To Love By Lil Wayne - Songfacts

Toggle navigation

• Home
• Categories
• Places
• Blog
  • Blogs Home
  • News
  • Lists
  • Features
  • Songwriter Interviews
  • Song Writing
  • Fact or Fiction
  • They're Playing My Song
  • Music Quiz
  • Songfacts Pages
  • Songwriting Legends
  • Songfacts Podcast
  • All Titles
  • Authors
    • Amanda Flinner
    • April Fox
    • Bruce Pollock
    • Carl Wiser
    • Corey O'Flanagan
    • Dan MacIntosh
    • Developer
    • Ed Pearce
    • Greg Prato
    • Jeff Suwak
    • Jess Grant
    • Laura Antonelli
    • Leslie Michele Derrough
    • Maggie Grimason
    • Nicole Roberge
    • Roger Catlin
    • Shawna Ortega
    • Stephanie Myers
    • Trevor Morelli
• Browse
  • Songs
  • Artists
  • Places
  • Years
  • Categories

Search

How To Loveby Lil Wayne

Album: Tha Carter IV (2011)Charted: 48 5 License This Song  artistfacts

Songfacts®:

• The third single from Lil Wayne's Tha Carter IV album is arguably the Young Money Head Honcho's first ballad. Accompanied by a strumming acoustic guitar, he croons: "You had a lot of crooks try to steal your heart/ Never really had luck/ Could never figure out/ How to love." Reviewers pondered how much the Detail produced tune was influenced by Weezy's love interest, Dhea.
• the song's producer, Detail, told MTV News the R&B ballad was recorded in Miami during a session in November 2010, and he used Lil Wayne and Birdman's 2006 single "Leather So Soft" as inspiration. "We created it in a very organic way; he's a very organic person," he said. "The crazy part about it was I know Wayne plays guitar. If y'all ever seen the I Am Music Tour, he be playing the guitar. So we created something that was like 'Leather So Soft,' where he could rock out with the guitar. We're visual with that type of stuff, so we just created a simple guitar riff that he can play on tour as well, over some 808s, a smooth ballad type of a beat. It wasn't nothing special, it was just something that felt strong. That was the type of record that would rock in his iPod and rock in my iPod for days and days and days before the world got a chance to experience the pleasure of something with such organic-ness."
• Wayne told MTV News this slowed down ode to the ladies was inspired by a 1993 song by the late Tupac Shakur. "That song is just sweeping the world. It's touching every woman, that's what it was for," he said. "It was like Tupac had 'Keep Ya Head Up' and it was a message to women and little girls across the world just to keep your head up even though things are hard."He added: "A lot of women don't know how to love because there's deep reasons for them not knowing how to love. And what I mean by deep reasons is deep and dark reasons. A lot of people don't open up that can and I figured that I can open up that can of worms and see what happens."
• The song was named in a lawsuit filed by Rich Rick, who claimed he purchased several master recordings between 2006 and 2009 from a group of rap producers called Drummer Boyz. Amongst them was the beat that appears on this song and Rich Rock alleged the producers pitched the same beat to Wayne in exchange for a 35% royalty agreement.
• The Chris Robinson-directed music video tells the story of an abused mother, who unintentionally leads her beautiful young daughter into reliving her own vicious cycle through bad choices. "I have a daughter, Wayne has a daughter, and he really wanted to tell the story," Robinson told MTV News. "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."Lil Wayne wrote the story himself. "He kinda tapped into a different perspective of the song and gave a different enlightenment on how you can consider a girl and how they're in a forever pursuit trying to find love," said the song's producer Detail.The grown up version of the young girl is played by model/actress Chanta Patton. Other videos she has appeared in include the visual for Kardinal Offishall's "Dangerous," where she's the beautiful girl who gets followed by Kardinal, Akon, and their pals.
• When this song rose to #3 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Songs dated September 10, 2011, Wayne became the first artist to feature on the chart's top three spots simultaneously since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking US music sales in 1992. The other tunes in the top three on that date were the accurately titled #1 "I'm On One," by DJ Khaled featuring Drake, Rick Ross & Lil Wayne and at #2 "Motivation" by Kelly Rowland featuring Lil Wayne.
• Tha Carter IV sold an impressive 964,000 albums in its US debut week, the highest sales week for any male artist since Tha Carter III moved 1.01 million back in 2008.
• Tha Carter IV sold over 300,000 downloads via iTunes in its first four days of release, which broke an iTunes record previously set by Watch The Throne.
• A version by The Voice contestant Christina Grimmie reached #79 on the Hot 100 in May 2014. Grimmie, known on YouTube as zeldaxlove64, is a pianist and singer/songwriter from New Jersey.

• More songs from Lil Wayne
• More songs from 2011
• Lil Wayne Artistfacts

Your name as you would like it displayed Your Locaton Your Comment send your comment

Comments: 1

• Dannette from New York , NyGirl at this time needs to learn how to love.

see more comments

More Songfacts:

OnlineBrad Paisley

The video for Brad Paisley's "Online" is a mini-Seinfeld reunion, featuring Jason Alexander, Estelle Harris, and Patrick Warburton.

Tell It To My HeartTaylor Dayne

The guy who wrote Taylor Dayne's "Tell It To My Heart" owns a collection of famous baseballs, including the one that went through Bill Buckner's legs in the 1986 World Series.

Heaven Is A Place On EarthBelinda Carlisle

"Heaven Is A Place On Earth" writer Ellen Shipley got the idea for the song from a gas station greeting card that said "Heaven On Earth."

SeptemberEarth, Wind & Fire

The chorus in "September" by Earth, Wind & Fire is "Bada-Ya, dancing in September." Group leader Maurice White left it "Bada-Ya" instead of a real word because he never let a lyric get in the way of a groove.

Scooby SnacksFun Lovin' Criminals

The Scooby Snacks in the Fun Lovin' Criminals song aren't dog treats, they're Valium pills.

Stay With MeSam Smith

A gospel choir appears in Sam Smith's "Stay With Me" video, but the vocals on the song are all Smith - about 20 tracks of his voice were used to make him sound like a chorus.

Editor's Picks

Guy ClarkSongwriter Interviews

Vince Gill, Emmylou Harris and Lyle Lovett are just a few of the artists who have looked to Clark for insightful, intelligent songs.

Joe Elliott of Def LeppardSongwriter Interviews

The Def Leppard frontman talks about their "lamentable" hit he never thought of as a single, and why he's juiced by his Mott The Hoople cover band.

Tanita TikaramSongwriter Interviews

When she released her first album in 1988, Tanita became a UK singing sensation at age 19. She talks about her darkly sensual voice and quirky songwriting style.

Christmas SongsFact or Fiction

Rudolf, Bob Dylan and the Singing Dogs all show up in this Fact or Fiction for seasonal favorites.

Steve Morse of Deep PurpleSongwriter Interviews

Deep Purple's guitarist since 1994, Steve talks about writing songs with the band and how he puts his own spin on "Smoke On The Water."

Rufus WainwrightSongwriter Interviews

Rufus Wainwright on "Hallelujah," his album Unfollow The Rules, and getting into his "lyric trance" on 12-hour walks.

Songfacts® Newsletter

A monthly update on our latest interviews, stories and added songs

What's your email? SUBSCRIBE

Information

• About Us
• Terms of Service
• Our Privacy Policy
• Google Privacy Policy
• Songfacts API
• Music History Calendar
• Song Licensing
• Affiliate Disclosure
• Contact Us
• Privacy Manager

Follow Us

• Facebook
• X (Twitter)
• YouTube

Contribution

• Message Boards
• Songfacts Writers

©2026 Songfacts, LLC