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Pink Friday track listing
"Your Love" is track number 12.
Previous track
"Dear Old Nicki"
Next track
"Last Chance"

"Your Love" is a song by Nicki Minaj, released as the lead single from her debut album, Pink Friday. The track was written by Nicki Minaj with Joseph Hughes, David Freedman, and Andrew "Pop" Wansel, with the latter receiving production credits. Young Money's first lady was preparing to release another single after the intended lead single from the album, "Massive Attack", failed to make an impact. A version of "Your Love" appeared on the Barbie World mix tape in January 2010. Later, another version appeared online after it was stolen and leaked. After the song was endorsed by radio, the song was mixed and a few lyrics were changes before it was made the new single from the album, first released on on June 1, 2010. The overall song peaked at number 14 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart.

"Your Love" samples the pop song "No More I Love You's" (1994) by Scottish recording artist Annie Lennox, with additional bass, hip-hop backbeats and drum loops. Described as a "rap ballad", the song is a change of tempo compared to Minaj's previous work, and according to Mariel Concepcion of Billboard, the song contains a "new brand of hood majesty." The song received mostly positive reviews from critics, complimenting Nicki Minaj's singing and rapping flexibility, and the use of the Annie Lennox sample.

Background[]

Demo version and leak[]

The song's demo was originally recorded in 2008, though it did not leak until January of 2010. The demo version has different lyrics included in the pre-chorus along with a fast sound. The demo also included a direct sample instead of a recreation. Nicki Minaj stated in an interview with Hot 93.7 that, "That was a leak and I was so upset they put it out 'cause I recorded that song like two years ago. Next thing you know, people started falling in love with it." Later on the set of the music video shoot for the song, Nicki Minaj stated that the song was stolen and leaked, explaining,

"I was not planning on putting the song out at all. But then I heard it one day, somebody told me it was online. And I was like, 'No way, no way in the world that song is out.' I went and listened to it and was really upset. It wasn't mixed, it wasn't finished, it wasn't anything — I wasn't gonna use it at all. But then radio started playing it."

Re-recording[]

Because of the song's unprecedented radio success, a final version was re-recorded for Pink Friday. Minaj later admitted to outright disliking the song, but released it because of the great popular demand, both from fans and urban radio.

YourLoveOriginal

The original cover from the Jonathan Mannion photo shoot.

Rap-Up posted cover art featuring a close up of Nicki Minaj smirking to her right, however for unknown reasons the art work was changed. The new cover features a cartoon version of Nicki Minaj, made by fan Asia Horton who posted it for Nicki Minaj on Twitter.

The official remix featuring Cash Money labelmate Jay Sean was leaked via-internet on August 2, and later made available for purchase in Australia via iTunes. An unofficial remix of the song features American pop rapper Flo Rida adding a verse into the song were he samples a line from B.I.G. Reggae recording artist Sean Paul also did a remix to the song where he ad-libs his verse throughout the original song and later adds his verse. Other remixes to the song include those done by American rapper Rick Ross, and American R&B singer Chris Brown.

Composition[]

The song is a mid-tempo hip-hop song with pop elements. With an auto-tuned chorus, it samples the instrumentals and background hooks of "No More I Love You's" by Annie Lennox, with the addition of additional bass, drum-loops and hip-hop backbeats. According to the sheet music published at Musicnotes.com by Sony/ATV Music Publishing, "Your Love" is set in common time with a metronome of 94 beats per minute. It is composed in the key of E major with Nicki Minaj's vocal range spanning from the low-note of B to the high-note.

Sara D. Anderson of AOL Radio Blog described the song as a "rap ballad", and that it features Nicki Minaj delivering a "rap/singing mash-up. Coined as a "new brand of hood majesty," the song is accompanied by a simple beat, which includes finger snaps and "xylophone clings. Lean Greenblatt of Entertainment Weekly commented: "Rap's spitfire explores her softer side, sampling Annie Lennox on her honey-tongued ode to a good man." Greenblatt went on to compared the song to Jay-Z's "kindred" "Young Forever." Nicki Minaj makes several references in her lines, which include references to Bruce Willis in Die Hard, and Adam and Eve. She makes several connections to Superman including in the pre-chorus "'S' on my chest, let me get my cape on.

Cross references[]

Music video[]

A music video for the song was directed by Director X on the weekend of July 4, 2010 in Los Angeles. Nicki Minaj was interviewed on the set of the "Your Love" music video by MTV News while wearing a pink and purple kimono as a geisha for the video. In the interview, Nicki Minaj said,

"We wanted to have geisha themes, samurai themes, stuff like that. I wanted to tell a love story. It's just kinda liking a guy, where he's not really for you to like — the forbidden fruit — and me and this other girl happen to like him and we go to war."

The video is set to tell the story of a samurai-in-training, who falls in love with her master while a jealous peer fights for his affection. The video begins with Nicki Minaj delivering her lines over red and blue flowing fabric backdrops wearing a brown coat an geisha attire, while White teaches a martial arts class. As Nicki Minaj and the instructor (White) begin to fall for one another, a student, who also has feelings for the instructor sees this and is jealous. This is intercut with scenes with Nicki Minaj donning a blonde wig and black bodysuit and in front of a green flowing backdrop. After seeing Nicki Minaj and White embrace each other on a bridge over blue-fabric "water", she and Nicki Minaj have a confrontation, which results in a duel. According to MTV News, the scenes pay homage to Uma Thurman as The Bride and Lucy Liu as Cottonmouth in Kill Bill.The other girl envys her because she knows better and she loves the teacher.

Robbie Daw of Idolator appreciated the plot twist of the video, commenting,

"We really expected Nicki to waste that other warrior-in-training hater. The fact that she dies—and does so in such a beautiful way here—kind of makes us love her all the more."

Daw also inferred that the fancy attire from the "No More I Love You's" video inspired Nicki Minaj's in the "Your Love" video. Nicole Sia of MTV Buzzworthy stated that the video resembles Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in its fight scene and commented on Nicki Minaj's appearance stating "the camera cuts to Ms. Young Money soloing in front of billowing one-million-thread-count satin sheets, just to remind us how damn FINE she is." stating the best were Nicki Minaj chopped through the blocks of cement, her crazy faces, silk sheets and headgear, and that the worst part was the "melodramatic ending" and "the return of those Freddy Krueger fingers.

Official music video[]

Music Video Information
Nicki_Minaj_-_Your_Love Premiere July 21, 2010
Filmed July, 2010
Director Director X
Producer
Production co
Exec. producer
Editor
Choreographer
Length 4:05
Source [1]

Credits and personnel[]

  • Songwriting – Nicki Minaj Warren "Oak" Felder, Andrew "Pop" Wansel, David Freeman, Joseph Patrick Hughes,
  • Recording – Ariel Chobaz, assisted by Lyttleton "Cartwheel" Carter
  • Mix engineer – Meal Pogue
  • Production – Pop Wansel & Oak of the Knightwritaz

Lyrics[]

References[]


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