“How To Love” — Lil Wayne
There’s only so much of contemporary R&B slow jams I can take. I think it reached its peak in the ’80s and ’90s and has been on the downhill ever since. But when Lil Wayne’s “How To Love” came on the radio, I couldn’t help but to fall in love. Rolling Stone’s Jody Rosen described it best, “This Tha Carter IV single is a casual ground-breaker — the gentlest, most melodic rap ballad since LL Cool J’s ‘I Need Love.’”
In its first week, “How To Love” broke onto Billboard’s Hot 100 and is now perched at the #12 spot, with potential to rise even higher. The track is intriguing in the way it blends rap into a sweet, semi-romantic song while maintaining a sick, head-nodding beat.
This song takes Lil Wayne from being pigeonholed as an auto-tuned, club-thumping music artist into a musician who transcends barriers and pushes the entire genre to evolve. Maybe I’m giving him too much credit — nevertheless, “How To Love” has the capacity to impress even the most stubborn Hip Hop/R&B hater.
Listen to “How To Love” by Lil Wayne below:
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