after the laughter i guess comes the tearz.........

RZA and ghostface killah from wu-tang clan take us on a couple stories throughout tearz, which has a vocal version called 'after the laughter comes tears'.

'After The Laughter Comes Tears'- Wu-Tang Clan

this song has 2 verses, both telling stories beginning in laughter, but ending in tears. in the first verse, RZA paints a picture of him chilling with his friends on the street. he's laughing and listening to music; 'the bass would blast.' meanwhile, his mother sends his little brother out for bread. the brother walks to the shop and on his way there, bumps into a 'crazy gunner' who tells him to hand over his money. the little brother says no, and the gunner shoots & kills him. RZA hears girls running down the block; 'Hey Rakeem! Your little brother got shot!' he runs over to find his brother blood 'all over the hot concrete'; the first of two tragic endings in the song. ‘how do i say goodbye? it’s always the good ones that have to die.’

both at the beginning of tearz and after verse 1, we hear a sample of 'After Laughter (Comes Tears)' by Wendy Reme. the contrast between the sample, Reme's voice soft and angelic, and RZA's tragic storytelling lyrics, filled with emotion and pain, adds a layer of depth to this song that made me wanna write this in the first place.   

the second verse takes us through ghostface killah's experience with his friend 'big moe.' they just left the strip club (‘shelter’) to have sex with this girl named thelma. both drunk and not thinking straight, he's tryna convince moe to wear a condom; 'thelma had a rep that was higher than her neck'! moe ignores the advice and laughs it off; but ended up contracting HIV, proving the rapper (and thelma's rep) correct. another story that started with laughter, ending in tearz.