Math (by Rhythm Rhyme Results, Children's Music)

With song titles like "Fractions and Decimals," "Don't Be Negative" (about negative signs), and "Meters, Liters, and Grams," this CD covers all of the key lessons from middle-school math in rap and hip-hop. Calculating surface area might remain in kids' brains if they hear it this way: "Stay with me, it's gonna get tricky/When you're dealing with a box it's a little more iffy/a, b, and c are the lengths of three sides/With different combinations, just multiply/2 a b, add it to the 2 b c, and add it to the 2 c a/Now you're dealing with the surface of a box (OK!)." As on the other offerings in the series, there are four versions of each song. The "Original Track" presents the complete song at its normal tempo, the "Downtempo Track" presents the complete song at a reduced tempo, the "Recall Track™" feature eliminates key words and phrases from the lyrics, and the "Instrumental Track" provides a karaoke-style version without lead vocals.

Math is kind of hard to teach in a song -- even when you're rapping. The lyrics on this release are less imaginative and poetic than those on the other titles in the series -- and students may need some visuals to supplement. But the talented Rhythm Rhyme Results crew pulls the songs off with their usual clever finesse, and the concepts become clearer with a second listen. One highlight, "Meters, Liters, and Grams," describes measurements in terms of the size of every-day objects: "A paper clip weighs about a gram/a big textbook is a kilogram, man, but a milligram, that's a little harder to slice/because 10 milligrams is about a grain of rice" -- making the concepts relevant and easy to understand.

Released on: April 3, 2008
Genre: Children's Music