Beastie Boys · Licensed to Ill

Time to Get Ill

Time to Get Ill is in C minor at 97.9 beats per minute.

4080120160200

Tempo

98 BPM · Andantemedian of 140 analyses · 97.8–97.9 across the middle eight tenths
Key
C minor3 flats · the key most of the analyses agreed on
Agreement
80%share of analyses that agreed
Analyses
140people who ran the extractor
One beat
612.9milliseconds, 60,000 ÷ BPM
Tuning
440.8Hz · +3 cents from A 440
Dynamics
5.05dB the level wanders from its average
Loudness
0.889Essentia's 0–1 scale, not dB
Danceability
1.288Essentia's danceability, 0–3

Source: AcousticBrainz, dump of 2022-06-23 (CC0) · MusicBrainz core data, 2026-09-17 (CC0) · how each number is measured. Measured up to 23.06.2022 — AcousticBrainz stopped collecting in 2022, so nothing released after that date is here.

What the numbers say

140 independent analyses of this recording were submitted to AcousticBrainz. Most of them — 80% — put it in C minor, a key signature of 3 flats. The tempo printed above is the median of the 140 readings; 100% of them land within 2% of it, and they barely differ at all.

At 97.9 BPM one beat lasts 612.9 milliseconds, so a sixteenth note is 153.2 ms and a dotted eighth 459.7 ms — the delay times for this recording. Counted half as fast it is 49 BPM, counted twice as fast 195.8. A score would mark that Andante, by the ranges this site uses.

The analyses put the reference pitch of the recording at 440.8 Hz, which is 3 cents above concert A at 440 Hz — close enough to standard that a tuner would not argue. That is a fact about this transfer of the music, not about how it was played.

The dynamic complexity of the recording measures 5.05 dB: that is how far the level wanders from its own average, so a small number means a loud, flat master and a large one means a recording that still breathes. Its average loudness is 0.889 on Essentia's 0-to-1 scale, which is not decibels and is not comparable to a streaming service's number.

10 other recordings here are in C minor; the ones listed below are the closest in tempo.

Beats per bar are not in this dataset. AcousticBrainz's analysis reports a tempo, a key and a loudness, and no time signature at all, so this page does not print one — a 4/4 here would be a guess dressed as a measurement.

Keys that fit with C minor

Each of these differs from C minor by at most one accidental, or shares its tonic. That is the whole of what a mixing wheel encodes; here the relations are named instead of numbered.

Delay times at 98 BPM

Note valueBeatsMillisecondsHertz
Whole note42451.50.41
Half note21225.70.82
Dotted quarter1.5919.31.09
Quarter note (one beat)1612.91.63
Quarter triplet0.667408.62.45
Dotted eighth0.75459.72.18
Eighth note0.5306.43.26
Eighth triplet0.333204.34.9
Dotted sixteenth0.375229.84.35
Sixteenth note0.25153.26.53
Sixteenth triplet0.167102.19.79
Thirty-second note0.12576.613.05

Half time 49 BPM · double time 195.8 BPM. Every row is one beat (612.9 ms) times the fraction in the second column.

Closest in key and tempo

  1. Spanish Castle MagicThe Jimi Hendrix ExperienceC minor98BPM
  2. My Iron LungRadioheadC minor97BPM
  3. Bodhisattva VowBeastie BoysC minor99BPM
  4. Paid in FullEric B. & RakimC minor99BPM
  5. Slow RideBeastie BoysC minor97BPM
  6. GirlThe BeatlesC minor97BPM
  7. Hear MeKelly ClarksonC minor99BPM
  8. Gett OffPrince & The New Power GenerationC minor100BPM
  9. Worth ItFifth Harmony feat. Kid InkC minor100BPM
  10. Fascination StreetThe CureC minor100BPM

Recordings in C minor, ordered by how near their tempo is to 98 BPM. A calculation, not a recommendation.

All songs in C minorAll songs at 98 BPMC minor at 90–99 BPMBeastie Boys

MusicBrainz collapses 35 recording ids into this one. Recording id 8bbe0d7b-9f7d-44d6-8254-549286f20ab2.