Ne-Yo’s latest visual to accompany his new single, “Don’t Love Me,” may be his most cinematic thus far. Starring P-Valley‘s Tyler Lepley and Empire‘s Serayah, the abstract black-and-white video shows the crooner in the foreground narrating the story of the “I hate you/I love you/I hate you” relationship trope.
Similar to the visual story told in Netflix’s 2020 melodrama, Malcolm & Marie, the couple in the song’s video navigates infidelity, lack of trust, insecurities, and general unhappiness as they struggle to decide whether or not to stay together. Lepley gets annoyed while cooking and dealing with his partner’s social media obsession while she can’t seem to understand his frustrations.
Meanwhile, Ne-Yo urges listeners to walk away, especially if they’ll be better for it. “You should walk away/It’d be selfish of me to ask you to stay/When I know that I cannot love you the way you deserve,” he coos in the pre-chorus.
Ultimately, it’s Lepley who chooses to leave first. Confessions-style, he states, “I think we might need to press the brakes on this for a second. I mean, this ain’t right. You’re not happy. I can see that in your face. There’s no point in us being unhappy together. We didn’t start out like this. I mean, I don’t know how it got here, but it doesn’t make sense for me to hold onto this for a selfish reason. I can’t be what you need me to be right now, as much as it pains me to say that. Girl, I love you, but I love you enough to let you walk away.”
“Don’t Love Me” sets the tone for Ne-Yo’s long-awaited new album—his first since 2019’s Another Kind Of Christmas.
Watch the heartache unfold above.