The one song Mos Def snatched from Scarface: “I want that!”
“Mathematics” by Mos Def is the socially conscious hip-hop track that explores and dissects a whole spectrum of issues facing Americans – especially Black Americans – in 1999, the year the single was released.
Using maths as a metaphor, the lyrics by Mos – now known as Yasiin Bey – explore issues that include economic inequality, mass incarceration and systemic racism through the metric of… Well, mathematics. Numbers are used in these brilliant lyrics to expose the injustices of society: prison populations, drug sentences, even the budget spent on national defence by the government.
With DJ Premier at the wheel of production, these bitingly poignant lines are bolstered with the producer’s signature scratch samples and a minimalist beat that has the effect of really platforming the lyrics.
It remains one of Prem’s favourite beats. Speaking to Complex in 2011 on the stories behind some of his most iconic records, the legendary producer discussed at length “Mathematics”, saying he “loves that beat”.
“Oh, my God. That’s straight gutter. You can’t front on me with that. I chop that shit up lovely,” he said. “‘I revolve around science/What are we talking about here?’ You know a lot of DJs cut and attach stuff now, but they ain’t doing it like me. And that’s not even to brag, it’s just scientific. It’s mathematical.”
“Mos and I go way back,” Prem then explained. “He used to be managed by my manager. He was in a group called UTD, Urban Thermo Dynamics, back then. His sister Ces, and D.c.Q, his brother, were all in the group. [Mos] is so bugged out, so I knew I had to make a bugged-out beat. ‘Mathematics’ is just so fucking funky.”
And then a multiple Grammy award-winning producer expanded further, explaining another hip-hop legend who also took to the beat. “I remember I went to see Scarface at Enterprise Studio. They called it Enterprise because it looked like a spaceship. It was in a big, huge, movie-theater-type room. He’s in there working on one of his albums, and he was like, ‘You got some beats? Let me hear what you’re working on.’”
I played him the beat for ‘Mathematics,’ and he goes, ‘Yo, I should have that! That’s what I want! When you do something with me, I want that! Don’t give me no down south whatever. I want that beat, and I will kill that.’ Scarface even met Mos Def and told him that he wanted that beat.”
And yet, unfortunately for Scarface, it was not to be. “Mos is quick, man. He heard it, had his verse ready, went in there, and it didn’t take him much.”
The album Scarface was working on was The Last of a Dying Breed, the rapper’s sixth studio album. Released in 2000, it was considerably less commercially successful than his previous albums My Homies and The Untouchable. But the album, which features the likes of Jay-Z and UGK amongst others, was more successful critically. Who knows how it would have fared with that particular beat from Prem.