Love the Way You Lie
"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.
Not to be confused with Love the Way U Lie."Love the Way You Lie"
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.
Recording[edit]
Mike Strange recorded and mixed Eminem's vocals at Effigy Studios in Ferndale, Michigan.[19] The sessions took two days.[20] Strange edited the vocals with D-Verb—a reverberation software—and an Extra Long Delay plug-in. He preferred to make few changes; for "Love the Way You Lie" he almost exclusively used board compression and console equalization. Strange used the Bricasti and Eventide Reverb 2016 mixing tools for "brighter" reverberation. Detroit musician Luis Resto has contributed to the arrangement on many of Eminem's songs, but did not do so for "Love the Way You Lie". According to Strange, "Everything we needed was already in the track, apart from the vocals."[2] Two to three weeks after the sessions, Alex da Kid arrived to help mix and master the track.[11] He wanted to replace the acoustic guitar on the demo, but Eminem chose to keep it.[3] Strange said, "It was simply a matter of trying to match and then to improve on the demo [Alex da Kid]'d sent us."[2] Strange's brother Joe engineered the track.[19]
Rihanna's recording sessions took place at Sun Studios in Dublin, Ireland, and were engineered by Marcos Tovar. The R&B songwriter Makeba Riddick provided additional vocal production.[19] Strange used equalization, compression and reverberation but left the vocal balance. He assumed that Rihanna was satisfied with her recorded vocals and did not make major changes on her seven stereo vocal tracks.[2]
Commercial performance[edit]
"Love the Way You Lie" reached number one on several record charts worldwide.[58] It entered the US Billboard Hot 100 at number two in the issue dated July 10, 2010.[59] The single debuted at number one on the US Digital Songs after selling 338,000 digital copies in its first week.[37] From July 31 to September 11, 2010, it had a seven-week run at the top of the Hot 100,[60] giving Eminem his fourth, and Rihanna her seventh, number-one US hit.[61] The single sold more than 300,000 digital copies in the week of August 14, 2010, rising to number two on the Pop Songs and Radio Songs charts.[62] In the Billboard issue for August 21, 2010, Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems recognized the single with the BDS Certified Award for 50,000 radio spins.[63] It topped the Pop Songs chart in the same issue,[64] giving Eminem his third number-one track on the chart and Rihanna her sixth.[65] "Love the Way You Lie" was the first number-one hit (for 10 years) on the Rap Songs chart with Eminem as the lead artist since his 2000 single "The Real Slim Shady".[66] With sales of 4,245,000 copies, "Love the Way You Lie" was the third best-selling single of 2010 in the United States.[67] There, it sold 6 million copies by October 2013 and 6.5 million copies by October 2015.[68][69]
The song entered the Australian Singles Chart on July 4, 2010, at number 14.[58] It rose to the top three weeks later, occupying the position for six weeks and staying on the chart for 38 weeks in total.[58] In Austria, "Love the Way You Lie" debuted at number 31, on July 2, 2010, and ascended to number one on September 4.[70] After making a final consecutive appearance on March 4, 2011, it reappeared at number 75 on August 26. The song spent 47 weeks on the chart.[70] "Love the Way You Lie" charted for 30 weeks in France, where debuted and peaked at number three on July 2, 2010.[71] It was South Korea's third best-selling song in 2010 by a foreign artist, with 1,200,653 downloads.[72]
On the UK Singles Chart, the song debuted at number seven on June 27, 2010, and peaked at number two four weeks later.[73][74] By the end of 2010, "Love the Way You Lie" had sold 854,000 copies in the UK, making it the country's biggest-selling song of the year.[75] It is the only song to top the year-end chart without topping the weekly charts. In October 2011, it became the 109th song to reach 1 million sales there.[76] By November 2012, the single had sold 1.05 million copies in the UK, placing at number 100 on the Official Charts Company's "The Million Sellers" list.[77] As of June 2015, it is the 17th best-selling single of the 2010s in the UK.[78] According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, "Love the Way You Lie" sold 9.3 million copies worldwide in 2010.[79] In December 2011, it was certified as Eminem's best-selling single.[80]
Cover versions[edit]
Various musical acts have performed cover versions of "Love the Way You Lie". Eric Stanley, an American violinist, remixed the song on the violin.[134] The country music group the Band Perry sang the song at the June 2011 CMT Music Awards.[135] Two months later, Taylor Momsen—the lead singer of the American rock band the Pretty Reckless—performed a cover version for BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge as part of a mashup with the song "Islands" by the English pop band the xx.[136] Assisted by a guitarist from her band, she began with a section of "Islands" and transitioned into the chorus of "Love the Way You Lie".[136] Cher Lloyd, a British singer, performed the song in the final five of The X Factor UK's seventh season.[137][138] Mernie Gilmore of the Daily Express commented that the song is "a duet for a reason" as Lloyd performed both Eminem's and Rihanna's parts.[137] In 2010, the Russian guitarist Alex Feather Akimov released "Love The Way You Lie (Heavy Remix)", a recording that was recognized by Billboard.biz (Web Trends).[139] The American post-hardcore band A Skylit Drive recorded a cover of the single for Punk Goes Pop 4, the 2011 release of the Punk Goes... series.[140]
The credits for "Love the Way You Lie" are adapted from the liner notes of Recovery.[19]