The rap song “Mathematics” was released by Mos Def in 1999. The solo album’s track was a commercial hit that remains one of Mos Def’s signatures.
The dominant layers and instruments used include the rapper’s vocals, bass, drums, various samples, disk scratching, and heavily modified and edited guitar sounds. In the song, the guitar, a common chordophone instrument, plays a small role, but the effects makes it difficult to recognize the timbre of the instrument.
The song pays homage to many successful artists of multiple genres by combining samples of their music with original sounds and lyrics. The disk scratching sequence during the bridge features most of the song’s samples. During the samples, the vocals of numerous people are heard, but there is never any voice overlap.
The harmonic character is played in consonant major. There is unity amongst the sounds and the song does not showcase much dissonance. The rapper stands out as the loudest part of the song, but the bass is also relatively loud. The percussion is quieter and more subtle. The song frequently switches focus between sounds. The disk scratching, lead vocals, and sampled sounds all become the loudest parts of the songs at varying points.
In reference to the meter, the song is a common duple, and there are 4 beats per measure. According to the bpmdatabase, the tempo of “Mathematics” is 94 beats per minute. This speed is close to a majority of their songs, with 80 being in the lower range, and 120 beats per minute on the higher side of the spectrum. The different layers have conflicting rhythms, and syncopation occurs frequently in the song. The primary conflict is between the main beat, drums, and the rapper.
The drums, a common membranophone instrument, provide a rhythmic function throughout the song. The layers of the song do not provide a harmonic function because there are limited pitches to harmonize with the melody. The guitar, bass, and samples serve an accompanimental function because they add more complexity to the song.
Within the lyrics, “Cha-pow, you dead now”, the “cha-pow” is accented, as it is spoken with more emphasis than the other lyrics. The pitch, however, stays relatively constant with the rest of the song. The rapper is fairly clear in his speech and does not slur heavily. Mos Def also tends to put a stronger emphasis on the pronunciation of the last word(s) in many of his rhymes like “cash cow”, “crack”, “die” and “9 mils”.
The song refrains from using the swing elements often associated with jazz. The song does not utilize unequal swung notes, and it eludes a jazz rhythmic feel. Throughout the song, there is a call and response between different musicians or instruments. In segments that feature samples, the lyrics “its simple mathematics”, “check it out”, and “what are we talking about here” transition well and sequentially appear as possible responses to each other. These lyrics and rhythms can also be considered motives as they are repeated throughout the song.
“Mathematics” contains an introduction, two verses and two choruses. After the introduction is performed, the song alternates between verses and choruses. The melody of the song is simplistic as it is primarily spoken word and samples. Instead of having varied pitches throughout the melody, the melody becomes more interesting because of the timbre of Mos Def’s rapping. The contour is also relatively basic as there is not much activity that occurs in the melody of the song in terms of change in pitch. Consequently, the leaps in pitch are all fairly small. Due to the fact this is a rap song; the range in Mos Def’s performance is relatively small. There are simply not many very high or very low pitches in his rapping. Furthermore, there are very few interval changes throughout the song, and the ones that are present are small, and thus the melody can be classified as conjunct.
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