Erykah Badu · New Amerykah, Part One (4th World War)

The Cell

The Cell is in B flat minor at 106.9 beats per minute.

Tempo

107 BPM · Andantemedian of 146 analyses · 106.9–106.9 across the middle eight tenths

Key: B♭ minor5 flats · the key most of the analyses agreed on
Agreement: 88%share of analyses that agreed
Analyses: 146people who ran the extractor
One beat: 561.3milliseconds, 60,000 ÷ BPM
Tuning: 434.2Hz · -23 cents from A 440
Dynamics: 3.03dB the level wanders from its average
Loudness: 0.952Essentia's 0–1 scale, not dB
Danceability: 1.594Essentia'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

146 independent analyses of this recording were submitted to AcousticBrainz. Most of them — 88% — put it in B flat minor, a key signature of 5 flats. The tempo printed above is the median of the 146 readings; 99% of them land within 2% of it, and they barely differ at all.

At 106.9 BPM one beat lasts 561.3 milliseconds, so a sixteenth note is 140.3 ms and a dotted eighth 421 ms — the delay times for this recording. Counted half as fast it is 53.5 BPM, counted twice as fast 213.8. A score would mark that Andante, by the ranges this site uses.

The analyses put the reference pitch of the recording at 434.2 Hz, which is 23 cents below concert A at 440 Hz — the sort of drift a tape machine or a slightly different mastering leaves behind. That is a fact about this transfer of the music, not about how it was played.

The dynamic complexity of the recording measures 3.03 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 0.952 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 B flat 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 B♭ minor

Each of these differs from B♭ 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 107 BPM

Note value	Beats	Milliseconds	Hertz
Whole note	4	2245.1	0.45
Half note	2	1122.5	0.89
Dotted quarter	1.5	841.9	1.19
Quarter note (one beat)	1	561.3	1.78
Quarter triplet	0.667	374.2	2.67
Dotted eighth	0.75	421	2.38
Eighth note	0.5	280.6	3.56
Eighth triplet	0.333	187.1	5.35
Dotted sixteenth	0.375	210.5	4.75
Sixteenth note	0.25	140.3	7.13
Sixteenth triplet	0.167	93.5	10.69
Thirty-second note	0.125	70.2	14.25

Half time 53.5 BPM · double time 213.8 BPM. Every row is one beat (561.3 ms) times the fraction in the second column.

Closest in key and tempo

Recordings in B flat minor, ordered by how near their tempo is to 107 BPM. A calculation, not a recommendation.

All songs in B flat minor All songs at 107 BPM B♭ minor at 100–109 BPM Erykah Badu

MusicBrainz collapses 1 recording id into this one. Recording id 13978bbd-f942-4828-9961-aaecb288a1f4.