Musical themes and structure
editThe song's lyrics focus mainly on death and losing loved ones, but they also mention gang warfare and teenage pregnancy. Shakur writes in a style which asks of his God to bring him divine intervention in the crazy and chaotic world. Speculators have suggested that the song is a reflection of how Shakur attained his position of being a rapper--what he's been through and the consequences he's had to deal with. Another topic in the song is death at an early age. The line "My every move is a calculated step to bring me closer to an early death" describes how Shakur if forced to cope with violence and misogyny.
Kobi Malamud wrote in The Huffington Post that the song is unlike anything Shakur has ever released as the song outlines a man's frustration with money and lack of hope, therefore turning to a gangster lifestyle to somewhat ease the pain and attain income. He notes that the song.
"Reveal Shakur's spirituality and exude compassionate cries for divine intervention in a crazy, chaotic, and messed-up world. Shakur's plea for God, the God that is bigger than all regions, offers clear indication that he was dealing with an inner turmoil that only divine intervention could appease"[1]
"about loss, gang warfar, teenage pregnancy, and death. After listening to the song, girls wrote their reactions. Pictures of graveyards and descriptions of friends they had known who had died emerged spontaneously." [2]
"It's his most thematically consistent, leadt self-contradicting work, full of genuine reflection about how he's gotten where he is--and dread of the consequences." "Are all more powerful in hindsight with he chilling knowlege that he was right... helps paint a bleak, nihilistic picture, but there's such an honest, self-revealing quality to it that it can't help conveying a certain hope simply through its humanity." [3]
"So now I'm lost and I'm weary/I'm suicidal so don't stand near me/My every move is a calculated step/To bring me closer to an early death. All too many of these guys, like Tupac, expect to die at an early age. But we're so busy railing against violence and misogyny -- as though art is supposed to tell us what we want to hear -- that we've missed the fatalism and, more importantly, the question of what are we to do about it." [4]
The harmonica in "So Many Tears" is a sample from Stevie Wonder's song "That Girl", which spent 9 weeks at number one on the R&B charts in 1982.[5]
""So Many Tears" is one song off the album which truly has its own sound unparalleled by anything else Tupac ever released. Opening with a unforgettable religious quote, and backed by hazy sounds, notes from a harmonica, and a hard-hitting beat, the instrumental gives off the sensation of a man feeling angrily desperate and turning to G-d as his only hope. In his lyrics he reflects first on his hopeless past and how he feels he was cursed, and moves on to begging G-d to "take me away from all the pressure, and all the pain." The song gives off a dual feeling of not just sadness but also a type of inhuman spirituality surrounding the thoughts in Tupac's head as he keeps mentioning G-d. The lyrics are also very solid because there is almost no slang, but rather clear, straightforward speaking of thoughts right from Tupac's heart. I think "So Many Tears" contains some of his best-written and most sincere lyrics on the whole album." [6]
"The powerful "So Many Tears" 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."[7] [8]