In August of 2011, Rapper Lil Wayne released a thought provoking and powerful music video for his third single "How to Love" from his album The Carter IV. In this video Wayne's lyrics are brought to life in a portrayal of a vicious cycle that plagues society today. The concept of the video displays a woman in the beginning stages of an abortion, but decided not to go through with the process. After making that decision, we see a cycle of abuse (physical, sexual, substance, etc.) passed from mother to daughter. Wayne allows the audience to see the negative effects of certain behaviors, then rewinds to a more positive outcome from better decision making. This is a softer side of Lil Wayne that we were never introduced to; this side showed that even some of the hardest rappers are aware of the issues affecting our women, especially our daughters...
Lil Wayne's -How To Love
Wayne stated, " The song is about women who "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 deer 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".
Although the "Rap" music genre is deemed controversial due to the graphic nature is its subject matters, rappers also use that outlet to convey messages to the public on issues they are passionate about. If we fast forward to May 2012, rapper Nas released the music video for his song "Daughters". "Daughters" is the third single off of his album Life is Good, and is dedicated to his own daughter, Destiny Jones.
Destiny sparked controversy earlier this year when she posted a photo of her condom collection and announced to Twitter that she named her new ivory Mercedes-Benz "Cocaine".
These things may appear to be harmless to us, the public. It is a completely different lane when the teenage daughter of a legendary music artist talks or makes innuendos about risky behaviors. This triggered something in Nas that allowed him to realize, he was failing his daughter as a father; he needed to step up to save his daughter...
Nas-Daughters
Nas' lyrics conjoined with the imagery chosen to convey the intended message forces one to stop, think, and evaluate their situation. In this day and age, so many other things in society are raising the youth except for their parents. Parents are not taking the time that is needed to properly train children into well groomed and head strong adults. The streets, television, the internet, etc. now play nanny to our children, thus causing parents to disconnect (in more ways than one) from their offspring. Time moves so quickly, parents barely recognize what/who it is that "they have raised".
It is said to be cliche' BUT a father's love is the first love that a woman is introduced to. That relationship is so important because is sets the tone for any other man that is to follow. That relationship teaches a girl what is and is not acceptable behavior to take from a man. Some women will use the phrases " My father didn't treat me like that" or " My father never said anything like that to me" and that triggers something in her that lets her know this behavior is not acceptable. However, when that relationship is not there, that means there was no foundation laid, so how is she to know what is and is not acceptable; what she should and should not take from a man? Somethings are said to be common sense, but when a woman has been searching all her life for "that foundation" does common sense take precedence in this case?
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