Hip-hop is a powerful genre. It can be used to energize crowds, convey honest human experience, or, in some cases, make you sad.
Sure, it’s not quite as often that hip-hop reduces you to tears. But rappers have creative license to discuss their lives however they want, and sometimes it’s kinda depressing.
Let’s talk about a few examples of great hip-hop songs that are rooted in such sad subject matter that it’s kinda hard to love them as much as we do.
“Last Hope” by DMX
In 2012, DMX dropped his The Weigh In mixtape, which featured the previously unreleased track “Last Hope”. The song found the New York rapper, who was never one to mince words, speaking candidly about his life.
Following child support battles, multiple arrests, and drug addiction, DMX used “Last Hope” to reflect on the sorrow surrounding his experience and express a desire to be optimistic for the future. “Break down and call up to God, when it gets too hard,” he raps in the song. “I know you ain’t gonn’ let me go now!! (Please!) You brought me too far.”
Sadly, DMX passed away in 2021 after nearly a decade of being plagued by all these continued issues and more. His official cause of death was a heart attack.
“Tearz” by Wu-Tang Clan
Wu-Tang is, of course, for the children, but not this particular track. In 1993, the legendary New York Hip-Hop crew dropped Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), their debut album.
Among the iconic tunes is a song called “Tearz”. The track finds Wu-Tang members RZA and Ghostface Killah lamenting some very heartbreaking stories. RZA addresses the death of his younger brother, while Ghostface Killah raps about a friend who contracted HIV.
It’s a standout track that will make any listener pause and reflect on life and loss.
“Kurt Kobain” by Proof
In this song, late D12 rapper Proof writes a fictional suicide letter. The track was the final entry on Proof’s last album, Searching for Jerry Garcia (2005). Less than one year later, Proof was shot and killed in a Detroit nightclub.
One of Eminem’s closest friends, “Kurt Kobain” features some hauntingly tragic lines, such as Prood rapping: “I’d die for Em and save Hailie. Brave maybe, but just let them tears roll off my grave, Shady.”
Notably, the whole thing plays a bit like an homage to an older, equally depressing, hip-hop song.
“Suicidal Thoughts” by The Notorious B.I.G.
Quite possibly the saddest, most f***ed up rap song of all-time—at least in terms of mainstream artists—is The Notorious B.I.G.’s 1994 track “Suicidal Thoughts”.
The whole thing plays like a suicide note, with Biggie starting. off by rapping: “When I die, f*** it, I wanna go to hell. ‘Cause I’m a piece of s***, it ain’t hard to f***in’ tell.” He then sort of boldly laments (or celebrates?) a sinful life, before ending the song on a gunshot.
All the while, his hip-hop partner Puff Daddy—now known as Diddy—is trying to calm him down. This almost makes it sadder in retrospect when you consider the trajectory of Diddy’s life and career. As well as the fact that he has been accused of faking his friendship with Biggie and playing a role in Tupac’s death.
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