The music video was later filmed in February 2012, over three days. Director, Yoann Lemoine called the shoot “very minimal” and “mellow”. He further revealed, “There’s a lot of space in the video, and I wanted the visuals to pay tribute to that. When I listened to the track, I was seeing a landscape, involving animals and massive landscapes. I won’t say too much, but it’s very surprising that there are very few elements in it. It’s very simple but there’s this big sense of emptiness in it. It’s not narrative at all, and it involves animals.” Photos of the video were released to the internet on March 12, 2012, showing a grayscaled, Drake and Rihannaconsoling as well as close ups of both artists looking emotional.The video was initially set to premiere on March 23, 2012, but was delayed due to editing purposes. Drake spoke of the delay and further commented on the video, saying:
“It had to go through a process – I shot it with a director who’s incredible and we were just very specific about it. It’s a big record and a lot of footage. It’s [a] very artistic very abstract video – something that I wasn’t used to. I’m usually used to a very straight forward concept so I’m really excited for people to see it because it’s actually just something beautiful to look at. There’s actually for once no story necessarily as far as there being a narrative like ‘What’s My Name?’ or ‘We Found Love’ where there’s stories. This is just beautiful imagery.”
Drake announced that the video would be released either on March 28 or March 29, 2012. However, yet again, it did not premiere on any of those dates. The video eventually premiered on April 6, 2012 on MTV and OVO, and was uploaded to Drake’s official VEVO account on April 23.
Drake explained the concept of the video in an interview, saying:
“It’s all basically the ups and downs of a relationship but represented in icebergs and fire and animals and just pulsating movement and then you’ve got me and Rihanna very intimate.”
This is shown first with a bull alone, a blue jay flying through the air, a tropical fish, and a peacefully-presented landscape with snow-covered mountains, all presented calm and relaxed. However, arrows are later shot at the bull to represent poaching, while fire, to represent global warming and wildfire, destroys the outside landscape. The bird and fish are also shown to be frightened, moving abrubtly. The video could also be perceived as global warming or the effect of human mistreatment, destroying the beauty of nature on its own.
The video features a shot of a figure mid-air(Drake himself), with ash falling around him. while another scene features a tribal dancer completing a back flip through the air, among other moves. Rihanna wears a simple tatty cardigan whilst Drake is seen in a t-shirt, to present simplicity. Throughout the video, the pair are seen alone in some scenes, while in others they embrace each other by hugging, and with Drake kissing Rihanna on the forehead towards the end. The video concludes with a shot of smoke from the wildfire slowly dying out.