30-sec preview
2013 · From the album Yours Truly
The Way (feat. Mac Miller)
The reading
A giddy first-blush love song about the rush of being newly, unembarrassedly crazy about someone
02 · Interpretation
Ariana Grande's 'The Way': The Sound of New Love With Nothing to Hide
"The Way" is the sound of someone who has just fallen and sees no reason to play it cool. Released as the lead single from Ariana Grande's 2013 debut album Yours Truly, it pairs her with rapper Mac Miller over a piano loop borrowed from Brenda Russell's 1979 song "A Little Bit of Love." That sample does a lot of the interpretive work before a word is sung: it places the track in a lineage of warm, daytime soul rather than the moody, minor-key R&B that dominated pop radio at the time.
The spoken intro, "go back, back to the top," reads as a cue to the throwback aesthetic, a wink that what follows will sound like an older record even though it is brand new. Grande's opening hook is simple to the point of being a thesis statement: she loves the way he makes her feel, and she is going to spend the next three minutes repeating it because repetition is what infatuation does to a brain.
Mac Miller's verse plays the role of the besotted boyfriend with no game left to run. He sings in the shower, picks petals off flowers, and admits he is not a player, he just loves her. The cliches are intentional. He is performing the universal symptoms of a crush, the kind of behavior a person notices in themselves and finds embarrassing and delightful at once.
Grande's verses answer in a different register. Where Miller is goofy and distracted, she is declarative. She offers constancy ("Stay by your side, I'll never leave you"), availability ("If you want it, I got it"), and a promise not to disappear because, in her phrasing, he is a keeper. The song's emotional arithmetic is balanced this way throughout: he marvels at her, she reassures him.
The pre-chorus is the song's most interesting move. She calls him a "bad boy" she has to admit she has fallen for, then immediately drops the posturing: she does not care who sees, she does not want to hide how she feels when he is near. The lyric refuses the standard pop trope of secret love or complicated love. This is a song about the relief of public, uncomplicated affection.
Mac Miller's second verse
Miller's later verse is where the track loosens into something more specific. The image of her as "a princess to the public, but a freak when it's time" is a familiar hip-hop construction, but it is followed by something far more domestic: an invitation to watch American Beauty or Bruce Almighty. The detail matters because it grounds the romance in a couch and a remote control rather than a club or a hotel. The closing line of his verse, calling her an adventure he wants to explore, returns to the song's central register: enthusiasm without irony.
Why it landed
In 2013, Grande was still primarily known as a Nickelodeon actress, and "The Way" had to do double duty as a song and as a credential. The Mariah Carey echoes in her runs were noticed instantly, sometimes generously and sometimes as a charge of imitation, but the strategy worked: the track became a top ten US hit and established her as a singer with range rather than a TV star making a vanity record. The Miller feature also gave the song a co-sign from a credible rap world figure, which mattered for crossover.
The song endures less as a critical landmark than as a mood. It is the rare modern pop hit about a happy beginning, with no betrayal subplot, no ex in the wings, no self-doubt. That sincerity dates it in a good way. Listened to now, with the knowledge of what came later in both artists' lives, including Miller's death in 2018, the track carries a wistfulness it did not have on release. But the song itself is doing only one thing, and doing it well: bottling the part of a new relationship when the only available emotion is gratitude.
Themes catalogued
03 · Lyrics
"The Way (feat. Mac Miller)"
What we gotta do right here is go back, back to the top
I love the way you make me feel
I love it, I love it
I love the way you make me feel
I love it, I love it
Say, I'm thinking 'bout her every second, every hour
Do my singing in the shower
Picking petals off the flowers like
Do she love me, do she love me not? (love me not)
I ain't a player,I just (Player, I just...)
You give me that kind of something
Want it all the time, need it everyday
On a scale of one to ten I'm at a hundred
Never get enough, I can't stay away
If you want it, I got it, I got it everyday
You can get whatever you need from me
Stay by your side, I'll never leave you
And I ain't going nowhere 'cause you're a keeper
So don't you worry, baby, you got me
I got a bad boy, I must admit it (Hey)
You got my heart, don't know how you did it (Hey)
And I don't care who sees it, babe
I don't wanna hide the way I feel when you're next to me (Hey)
I love the way (I love the way you make me feel)
I love the way (I love it, I love it)
Baby, I love the way (I love the way you make me feel)
Ooh, I love the way (I love it, I love it)
The way you love me
Oh, it's so crazy you get my heart jumping
When you put your lips on mine
And, honey, it ain't a question (Q-q-question)
'Cause, boy, I know just what you like
So if you need it, I got it, I got it everyday
Be your lover, your friend, you'll find it all in me
Stay by your side, I'll never leave you
Said I ain't going nowhere 'cause you're a keeper
So don't you worry, baby, you got me
I got a bad boy, I must admit it (Hey)
You got my heart, don't know how you did it (Hey)
And I don't care who sees it, babe
I don't wanna hide the way I feel when you're next to me (Hey)
I love the way (I love the way you make me feel)
I love the way (I love it, I love it)
Baby, I love the way (I love the way you make me feel)
Ooh, I love the way (I love it, I love it)
The way I love you
I make you feel so fine, make you feel so fine
I hope you hit me on my celly when I sneak in your mind
You a princess to the public, but a freak when it's time
Said your bed be feeling lonely
So you're sleeping in mine
Come and watch a movie with me
"American Beauty" or "Bruce Almighty" that's groovy
Just come and move closer to me
I got some feelings for you I'm not gonna get bored of
But, baby, you're an adventure so let me come and explore you
So don't you worry, baby, you got me
I got a bad boy, I must admit it (Hey)
You got my heart, don't know how you did it (Hey)
And I don't care who sees it, babe
I don't wanna hide the way I feel when you're next to me (Hey)
I love the way (I love the way)
I love the way (I love it, I love it)
Baby, I love the way (I love the way)
Ooh, I love the way (I love it, I love it)
I love the way (I love the way you make me feel)
I love the way (I love it, I love it)
Baby, I love the way (I love the way you make me feel)
Ooh, I love the way (I love it)
The way I love you
The way I love you, you, you, yeah, the way
I love the way you make me feel
I love it, I love it
I love the way you make me feel
I love it
The way I love you
Lyrics via Google. Copyright belongs to rights holders.
04 · FAQ
Frequently asked
What song is sampled in 'The Way' by Ariana Grande?
Who is Mac Miller's verse on 'The Way' about?
What does the line about 'American Beauty or Bruce Almighty' mean in 'The Way'?
Why does Ariana Grande sound like Mariah Carey on 'The Way'?
What does 'I got a bad boy, I must admit it' mean in the song?
Was 'The Way' a hit for Ariana Grande?
What is the mood of 'The Way' compared to Ariana Grande's later songs?
05 · Discography
