We have all cried. Moments before our vision blurs and our eyes well up, we experience this overwhelming inability to articulate, comprehend, or bear the emotions launching our way. Our only solution right then is to let the tears flow. This solution becomes more and more taboo as we age, as if crossing an invisible age marker bars us from experiencing sorrow. As we begin to associate public displays of sadness with internal shame, we slowly become incapable of baring our soul to those around us. We may keep all our stresses, our longings, our anxieties, and our tragedies to ourselves. Wu-Tang Clan goes against this grain on “Tearz”, off their classic debut Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), as they come together to tell the heartbreaking stories about tears they have shed for fallen friends and family.

“Tearz” by Wu-Tang Clan

Wu-Tang Clan, hailing from the Staten Island borough of New York City, burst onto the scene with 1993’s Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). With this album, they brought hip-hop’s attention back to the East Coast, shifting the hype of the early 90s away from California-based artists like Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, and Tupac. They captivated hip-hop audiences with their free-wielding energy, braggadocious rhymes, and larger-than-life comradery. RZA helmed the album’s pioneering production as he used a distinctive mix of raw and grimy beats, soul song samples, and clips from martial arts films. The production set the stage for nine talented young rappers to trade bars for bars, displaying effortless and awe-inspiring cohesion yet showcasing each of their own unique personalities — from Ol Dirty Bastard’s otherworldly flow and personality, to Method Man’s laidback and slick vibe, to Raekwon’s gritty and evocative lyrics, to GZA’s mature and calculated wordplay, to Ghostface Killah’s masterful storytelling ability. They brought this versatile energy and style to the recording studio, creating an album that had songs that could be hard-hitting and hypnotic (“Clan in Da Front”), blood-curdling and graphic (“Bring Da Ruckus”), animated and funky (“Shame on a N****”), or socially conscious and thought-provoking (“C.R.E.A.M”). Throughout these 13 tracks, “Tearz” stands out as the most vulnerable, emotionally dense, and psychologically revealing. This song acts as a break from the hilarious, aggressive, and free-spirited rhymes to give us a laser-focused track of the depressing realities of Wu-Tang’s world.

The song begins with an intense and graphic skit, depicting someone getting shot and others rushing to his limp body as they wail in shock. It’s a scattered and claustrophobic introduction to the track, imitating the chaos that would occur in this type of scene. The skit fades out as Wendy Rene’s sampled vocals come in singing the title words from the classic 1964 soul song “After Laughter Comes Tears”, a gentle yet haunting phrase that becomes the thesis of the track. These soulful vocals linger and quiver with a heavy air of grief, opening the floodgates for the members of Wu-Tang to begin sharing the stories that brought them to tears.

RZA steps up to the plate first to share the story of his brother.

“My little brother, my mother sent him out for bread / Get the Wonder, it’s a hot day in the summer / Didn’t expect to come across a crazy gunner / “Hey, Shorty, check it, run the bag and the dough!” / But he was brave, looked him in the eye, and said “No!” / Money splattered him, BOW! Then he snatched the bag / Hit his pockets, then he jetted up the Ave / Girls screamin’, the noise up and down the block / (Hey, Rakeem!) What? (Your little brother got shot!) / I ran frantically, then I dropped down to his feet / I saw the blood all over the hot concrete / I picked him up, then I held him by his head / His eyes shut, that’s when I knew he was… / Aw man! How do I say goodbye? / It’s always the good ones that have to die / Memories in the corner of my mind / Flashbacks, of us laughin’ all the time / I taught him all about the bees and birds / But I wish I had a chance to sing these three words”

RZA’s vocals are aggressive and idiosyncratic, cycling between screaming, spoken-word, and methodically rapping. RZA brings the scene alive of seeing his little brother dead, as his verse makes you feel like you’re watching an Oscar-worthy film just by closing your eyes and letting each line pull you closer into this heart-wrenching story. The genius of this verse comes with RZA’s understanding that there is a greater power and pathos in leaving certain things unsaid. He utilizes direct quotes and onomatopeias throughout the verse to create that film-esque nature. One of the most striking examples comes when RZA realizes the state of his little brother. Instead of using the naturally expected rhyme “dead”, he screams the word “aw man!”, evoking what he may have actually said in this moment but also revealing the human nature of wanting to avoid the brutal truths that come with uttering that word. This disarming strategy of storytelling ends masterfully with the last line as he expresses his wish to say three words — we all know that we should express these three words more often to the people dear to our heart before they become our dearly departed.

The song underlays a stripped-back and sinister boom-bap beat with the melancholy old soul sample. The keyboards are high-pitched, the synths are abrasive and harsh, the bass is dark and brooding, and the drum pattern is slow, heavy, and methodical. Each aspect of this production bleeds into each other seamlessly to create an addictive, hypnotic, and unique pattern. Yet each verse snaps you out of that trance, the vivid and impassioned storytelling reminding us of the gritty realities that exist in countless spaces and times.

Ghostface Killah comes up next to share the story of his friend.

“Hey yo, he came out laughin’ with glory / I’m surprised he’s still livin’ to tell his story / But he carried on with the same old stuff / With Stephanie, like a Whammy, he pressed his luck / Moe tried to be down with O.P.P / Ain’t nothin’ wrong, but he got caught with the H.I.V / Now no life to live, doc says two more years / So after the laughter I guess comes the tears”

In the second verse, Ghostface Killah takes a much more direct approach to his storytelling. His high-pitched tone, fluctuating inflections, and focused lyricism convey an urgency of hoping others don’t make the same mistakes of his risk-taking friend who was routinely having unprotected sex. Ghostface’s talent shines here in his ability to showcase multiple conflicting emotions about the death of his friend — sadness, anger, and empathy. He conveys his despair of hearing about his friend’s diagnosis and impending death, yet he expresses an understated sense of exasperation that his words to his friend made no impact. He wishes his friend didn’t live life flying too close to the sun with not enough regard for the possibly fatal consequences. Despite all this, Ghostface doesn’t impart judgement toward his friend’s lifestyle as he acknowledges he experiences the same temptations. In the last line of his verse, he accepts the tears that have come from his friend’s death, harking back to the thesis of the track as Wendy Rene’s vocals glide in one final time.

The mix of skits, genre-blending production, and lyrics on “Tearz” constructs a set of special angles to see these stories fully with empathy and understanding. This gem of a song has an intensely therapeutic quality by telling the stories of two men whose life experiences would have otherwise been forgotten. Wu-Tang Clan shows that a group of people can use this art form to come together and create emotionally vulnerable tracks. Their ability and willingness to make tracks like this has paved the way for future hip-hop collectives to follow suit with stripped-back, emotive, and sentimental tracks — a la D12’s “How Come”, Odd Future’s “Analog 2”, and Brockhampton’s “No Halo”.

Life is full of tragedies. No matter how tough or hard-headed we may be, we will get blindsided by the difficulties of losing the ones we love the most. When we are knocked down and hopeless, we wonder how we can continue through this life. In those moments, we see the importance and the power of group vulnerability. We learn to open up and share our pain, and discover that others are often dealing with very similar pain themselves. As we begin to share the stories of our fallen friends and family, we will naturally tell the stories that bring the most sadness. Yet we will slowly find more stories in the margins, stories of joy, happiness, community, and laughter. By sharing the full scope of these stories, we will find a way to not only mourn for those who have died, but also celebrate their life. We will find that it is true that after laughter comes tears. But we will also find something new and unexpected.

After tears comes healing.