Eminem released the music video for his hit song, “Love the Way You Lie,” Thursday on MTV. Director Joseph Kahn who has also worked with Janet Jackson, 50 Cent, Lady Gaga and many others, features Eminem, Rihanna, Megan Fox and Dominic Monaghan in the video about an abusive relationship.
“Trying to make this tough subject work visually is a challenge. It was great to have Rihanna, Megan and Dominic on board for this. They really brought it and made this video super-powerful,” said Eminem.
Eminem and Rihanna have both been in abusive relationships of their own, in opposite roles.
Rihanna recently told Access Hollywood that the song was something she needed to do.
“It was just authentic. It was real. It was believable for us to do a record like that, but it was also something that needed to be done, and the way he did it was so clever,” the singer added.
Rihanna’s abusive relationship with Chris Brown has since ended, while Eminem’s with ex-wife Kim has continued the same on-again-off-again pattern.
Critics have mixed reviews about the message that the video is sending, but are agreeing on one thing, “The most important thing the video is doing is raising the topic of dating violence among young people,” Stephanie Nilva, executive director of sexual assault and trauma resource center Day One, told MTV News.
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Monaghan, who plays a character that depicts Eminem in the video recently told MTV.com, “I think we tried as hard as we could to not golrify the violence, to try and explain that this was a relationship that is by no means ideal and a relationship that probably should have ended a lot sooner than it did.”
Kahn is also responsible for videos, “Toxic,” the 2004 Britney Spears song, “Elevation,” by U2, “Without Me,” by Eminem, “Hero,” by Enrique Iglesias, and “LoveGame,” by Lady Gaga.
Eminem is nominated for eight VMA’s on the upcoming September 12th award show, second only to Lady Gaga.
