"So Many Tears" is a song by American rapper 2Pac from his third studio album, Me Against the World (1995).[1] It was released on June 13, 1995, as the album's second single. It was produced by Shock G, who used a sample of Stevie Wonder's That Girl, and is often described as one of the album's best. A music video was made for "So Many Tears" and there were also numerous live performances of this song on Saturday Night Live and on Shakur's House of Blues concert, his last recorded show.
The song was produced by Shakur's longtime mentor, Shock G, who produced it using a sample of the song "That Girl" by Stevie Wonder with a slowed down harmonica solo heard during the chorus.[2] The song's lyrics are autobiographical with Rolling Stone's Cheo H. Coker noting the track "finds an almost vulnerable 2Pac not only dealing with the senseless violence that marked his childhood but with the internal demons that threaten to consume him, snapping at his conscience like hellhounds on a bluesman’s trail".[3]
Shakur performed "So Many Tears" during his Saturday Night Live appearance on February 17, 1996. He also performed the song on his House of Blues concert and it is included on the Live at the House of Blues live album.[4]
(T. Shakur, G. Jacobs, R. Walker, E. Baker, S. Wonder; Joshua's Dream/Interscope Pearl Music/Warner-Tamerlane
Publishing Corp./ Grand Imperial Thug Music/Pubhowyalike Music, BMI/Triboy Music Publishing/Black Bull
Music/Jobete Music Co., ASCAP.)
Produced by D-Flizno Production Squad for Stayin' Biznizzy Productions
Engineered by Mike Schlesinger & Tim Nitz
Recorded and Mixed at Soundcastle Studios
Background Vocals: Thug Life, Digital Underground (appears courtesy of Tommy Boy Records) & Stretch
Keyboards: The Piano Man
Guitar: Eric "Kenya" Baker
Contains a sample from "That Girl" (Stevie Wonder; Black Bull Music/Jobete Music Co., Inc., ASCAP), as recorded by Stevie Wonder, under license from Motown Records. During the chorus, a slowed-down harmonica solo is heard.
