The song “Mathematics” by Mos Def contains an abundance of musical elements that change throughout the progression of the song. The song begins with a distorted guitar sound. The sound is repeated at a rather quick rate, but once the bass and rap vocals are introduced, it begins to slow down and then longer bass notes are played. There is a break in the sound distortion in the middle of the songs primarily loop that lasts a few seconds before the distortion is reintroduced. In regards to the pitch of the chordophone instruments used, there is a strong contrast between the high pitch of the guitar sounds and the low pitch of the bass. In terms of tempo, the rapping is very slow in the beginning of the song, but it begins to increase at the start of the first verse. This occurs when Yasiin Bey begins to rap “Yo, check it one for Charlie Hustle, two for Steady Rock, Three for the fourth coming live, future shock.” During both verses of the song, there is roughly a 7 second loop that is repeated all the way through them. The drums are played steadily during these loops at a normal tempo, and they help to serve a rhythmic function. The loop begins with a few bass notes and after those have been played, there is roughly a one second break in the bass playing in which only the drums can be heard. Once the bass comes back in, a deeper longer note is played and then there is another quick break in the bass before a couple notes are played in quick succession. These notes are played very conjunctly and at a lower pitch. Directly after this quick note succession is when the guitar distortion sounds are reintroduced. This is the point in the loop in which there are the most instruments being utilized, and where there is the greatest number of instrument layers. The bass continues to play along with the distorted guitar sounds, but the notes are played farther apart, more disjunctly, and slower. It almost appears that the guitar distortion that ends the loop actually carries over to the beginning of the next loop for about a brief second.

Through the first verse, the articulation, dynamics and speed of the rapper are fairly consistent. One exception is around the one minute mark when Bey nearly shouts while rapping, “Cha-pow” during the rhyme, “cha-pow, who dead now.” “Cha-pow” is accented in this rhyme and it is said ferociously in a shout like manner in order to represent the theme of killing and violence existent in the lyrics.

There are also a few very subtle record scratches in the first verse. One record scratch interjects at 1:43 in the song after the guitar distortion at the end of the loop, but before the bass notes that begin the next cyclical notion.

The first chorus begins at around roughly 2 minutes and it is primarily features the samples from other artists, movies, and other forms of media. The samples, guitar, and bass used throughout the song offer an accompanimental function as they add complexity to the song. The chorus begins with record scratching that stops as “mighty Mos Def” is rapped. The record scratching then continues, but breaks yet again once the sample, “It’s simple mathematics” is played. There is then yet another very brief record scratching sequence before the sample “check it out” is introduced. Once again, the record scratching continues for a brief moment before the sample, “I revolve around science” is heard. After this sample, the sample of “what are we talking about here” is almost immediately played, without there being any record scratching in between. This sequence of rapping and samples is repeated before more samples are introduced. It is also of note that the loop from the song’s two verses is performed during this sequence. After the repeated sequence, the guitar distortion sounds become the emphasis of the song, and the sounds are played very conjunctly. These distorted sounds then continue to play in the background once new samples are introduced. The first sample is “do your math”, followed by a sample which counts “one, t-t-two, three, four”. That sample is immediately followed by the reused sample “what are we talking about here”, which effectively concludes the chorus. It can be stated that the chorus possesses a call and response because many of the lyrics and samples appear to be possible answers to each other. For example, the sample which contains counting could be a response to the sample stating “do your math”.

The second verse begins with Bey rapping “yo its one universal law, but two sides to every story.” This is similar to how the first verse began as they both start with Bey rapping alongside the start of the song’s primarily loop of instruments. The patterns of the verses in the songs are consistent and they both have minimal disruptions. While all of the rhymes and lyrics are different in the second verse, Bey retains a relatively consistent flow, pitch, and tempo all the way throughout the song. In other words, the range of pitch in Bey’s voice in the song is small. This is fairly typical of rappers in rap music as they frequently use spoken word and often do not attempt to jump from high to low, or high to low, as a singer in different genres might attempt to do.

The second chorus is identical to the first except there are extra sounds utilized at the end to conclude the song. After the part of the chorus that is identical to the first chorus, there is a brief moment where guitar distortion is heard. The distortion sound ends quickly, and right after a record scratching sequence begins. It lasts for approximately 5 seconds and it has a distinct sound from the other record scratching sequences that occur throughout the song. The song then finishes with the repetition of Bey rapping “mathematics”. Bey repeats “mathematics” at a consistent tempo, but it becomes quieter and fainter until the songs conclusion.

Overall, much like most rap songs, the song is played in a common duple meter. This simply means that there are 4 beats per measure. The song is also played in consonant major as there is consonance, or unity, amongst the sounds.

The song contains its fair share of syncopation as the different layers of instruments have conflicting rhythms. These primary conflicts exist between the pulse, drums, and the rapper. The layers do not serve much of a harmonic function because of the limited amount of pitches that are able to harmonize with the melody.

There is no consistent overpowering sound through the song, as the disk scratching, lead vocals, and sampled sounds all become the loudest parts of the songs at varying points. Despite this, the rapper stands out as being the loudest the most frequently, but the bass is not far behind. The drums stand out as being the most consistently quiet and subtle sounding instrument used throughout the song.

According to the bpmdatabase, the tempo of “Mathematics” is 94 beats per minute.