Eminem featuring Rihanna – Love The Way You Lie
Description
“Love the Way You Lie” is a song by the American rapper Eminem featuring the Barbadian singer Rihanna from Eminem’s seventh studio album Recovery (2010). The singer and songwriter Skylar Grey wrote and recorded a demo of the song alongside the producer Alex da Kid when she felt she was in an abusive romantic relationship with the music industry. Eminem wrote the verses and chose Rihanna to sing the chorus, resulting in a collaboration influenced by their past experiences in difficult relationships. Recording sessions were held in Ferndale, Michigan, and Dublin, Ireland. Backed by guitar, piano and violin, the track is a midtempo hip-hop ballad with a pop refrain, sung by Rihanna, and describes two lovers who refuse to separate despite being in a dangerous abusive relationship.
Interscope Records released the song in June 2010 as the second single from Recovery. Critics praised its melody but were divided on its thematic aspects such as poignancy and accuracy. Eminem promoted the single with performances at the 2010 Electronic Entertainment Expo, the MTV Video Music Awards and festivals. The music video, directed by Joseph Kahn, stars Dominic Monaghan and Megan Fox in a violent relationship and shows Eminem and Rihanna in front of a burning house. The clip had a mixed reception due to scenes of domestic violence. Reporters suggested that the song and its accompanying video were influenced by Eminem’s and Rihanna’s abusive relationships with their respective ex-lovers Kim Scott and Chris Brown.
Critics listed “Love the Way You Lie” among the best tracks of 2010 and of Eminem’s career. The song won many awards and received five Grammy nominations. It is Eminem’s best-selling single and ranked number one on several record charts, including the US Billboard Hot 100 for seven weeks. The single sold over 12 million copies in the US and 1.5 million in the UK. Musical acts such as Cher Lloyd and The Band Perry have performed cover versions. Rihanna has said that the theme of domestic violence, a topic on which she claims many people do not have insight, is what makes the song impactful. She later recorded with him again on “Love the Way You Lie (Part II)“, narrated mostly from her perspective. “Love the Way You Lie” peaked at number one in 22 countries.
Music video
Production
The music video for “Love the Way You Lie” was Eminem’s third to be directed by the best-known filmmaker Joseph Kahn. Despite having planned to shoot a feature film and stop directing pop videos, Kahn chose to work on “Love the Way You Lie” because, according to him, the song discusses an important topic. This was an opportunity for him to direct a video for Eminem without the comedic themes of their previous collaborations. For the video, Kahn considered [[The Lord of the Rings {(film series)|The Lord of the Rings]] actor Dominic Monaghan as a co-star for his versatility, which he thought would help him play an antagonist. Kahn cast the Hollywood actress Megan Fox, which he had presumed would be almost impossible because of her popularity with directors. Fox, a fan of Eminem, accepted the role without hesitation.
Rosenberg gave Kahn one day to write a treatment, which Kahn finished in 45 minutes. He filmed Eminem’s and Rihanna’s parts on July 20, 2010; scenes with Fox and Monaghan were shot three days later. By July 24, 2010, they finished the shoot. Kahn confirmed the completion of the director’s cut the next day. He said Fox’s involvement made the video powerful, commenting for Vibe:
We wanted to make a specific story about two people—Meg and Dom—not a video that was representative of all couples or all domestic violence situations. I’m not saying that all couples fight this way. I just want people just to be able to identify with the characters and recognize that they’ve seen relationships like this where two people are together that are completely wrong for each other and things spiral out of control…. Megan was the key to this video…. I’ll tell you as a director the reason why [Fox and Monaghan’s] scenes in the video feel so real is because in the moment they were real.
Monaghan told MTV he thought the couple represents Eminem and Scott. The clip was produced by Kathy Angstadt and MaryAnn Tanedo of HSI Productions. Shortly before its release, Eminem reported in a press statement: “Joseph and I worked pretty closely together to make sure we got this right”. He said the difficult topic resulted in a powerful video because of the contributions of Rihanna, Fox and Monaghan. Fox donated her appearance fee to the Sojourn House, a battered women’s shelter.
Synopsis
Rihanna sings the chorus in front of a burning house, while an interspersing scene shows fire on a woman’s (Fox) palms. In another scene, the woman is asleep with her lover (Monaghan) and wakes up. As Eminem begins to rap in an open field, the woman attacks her lover after seeing the name “Cindy” and a phone number written on his hand. He unsuccessfully tries to kiss the woman and brings her back after she attempts to leave him. The man then pushes her onto the wall and aims his fist at her, puncturing the wall instead. After Rihanna sings again, the video flashes back to when the couple first meet “at a seedy dive bar next door” to a liquor store. The man steals a bottle of vodka and they kiss on the rooftop.
During the present, the man apologizes to his lover and they are reconciled. In another flashback, he attacks someone who plays pool with his lover. At night, Eminem joins Rihanna in front of the burning house for the last verse. Meanwhile, after the flashback, the woman comes home and locks herself in the bathroom to stop her abusive lover from entering. In another scene, the fire on her palms vanishes as she claps her hands. Flames later engulf Eminem and the couple, who are then shown fighting in front of the burning house. In the end, the couple stays together and the video returns to their first scene, in which they sleep.
