Joy Crookes & Kano: The new ‘Mathematics’ hits way harder in this confessional tune
International glowing? How about getting both Joy Crookes and Kano together for a hard-hitting tune like the ‘Mathematics’ single?
Joy Crookes and Kano team up for their ‘Mathematics’ anthem
It’s way more than what you would expect for the Valentine’s Day season. Crookes and the ‘Top Boy’ star unite for a confession-filled song you can’t help but relate to.
Today sees Joy Crookes share her contemplative new single, ‘Mathematics’ Feat. Kano as BBC R1’s Hottest Record with Jack Saunders. A collaboration between two of the country’s most authentic and well respected music-makers, ‘Mathematics’ is a track that universally navigates the messiness of human connection. It’s the latest taste of music from a new era of Joy Crookes that sees the once-in-a-generation artist dig deeper into the fabric that makes Joy the artist, the woman, the human that she is today.
What started as a personal reflection on love and communication for both Joy and Kano has evolved into a bittersweet confessional as Joy candidly explains: “Mathematics was written when I was dating a French man who couldn’t understand what was going on between us wasn’t hieroglyphics, we were just falling in love and then he tried to friend zone. As I get to know this song better and sing it more, I’ve realised this song is somewhat an angry song about how easy I find it to love and the frustration that it can’t be reciprocated. It’s nice when a song becomes a medicine for lots of different fuckeries that life hands us. Kano came to hear the record with Blue May and I and then secretly recorded his verse to mathematics when I’d initially asked him to record on another song. He was drawn to mathematics and popped into the studio without us and literally just sent over a verse. It was so moving to see how he’d been moved enough to do this, almost like a little gift to this record. Cheers Kane, it’s really special to hear you write about love.”
Joy hasn’t been afraid to take her time before returning to the spotlight – she has taken stock over the past three years and returned with a meaningful arsenal of music, kicking off last month with the demanding and emphatic ‘Pass The Salt’ featuring Vince Staples, which has been Joy’s most successful track launch on streaming services globally to date. Joy was determined not to lose the spirit that had so informed her debut album; the deeply intimate and voraciously vibrant Skin in 2021. The album traversed familial love, generational trauma, breakups, and politics from the perspective of a young South London woman. As witty as it was wounded, Joy’s attention to lyrical detail and inherent gift for melody was immediately apparent; here was an artist that embodied the mercurial capabilities of those before her – Nina Simone, Amy Winehouse, Nick Drake, Sarah Vaughan, Mick Jones – while remaining utterly singular in her style.
Skin was both a commercial and critical success, landing at number 5 on the UK Official Charts and receiving BRIT nominations, a Mercury Prize nod and rave reviews from the Guardian and the NME, among others. Skin also attracted a fiercely loyal fanbase and Joy sold out her first UK tour in just hours, as well clocking up millions and millions of streams, working with brands including Lexus and adidas, performing at every major festival and appearing on Late Night with Seth Meyers, The Late Late Show with James Corden and joined Ed Sheeran onstage during Jools Holland’s Hootenanny.
Joy will be playing an intimate show at Islington Assembly Hall on Feb 18th in support of War Child and BRITs week, with tickets selling out in less than a minute. Stay tuned for more from Joy Crookes in 2025.
