Notorious BIG vs. Frank Sinatra - Blue Eyes Meets Bed Stuy: Album Review

DJ Cappel & Smitty, Blue Eyes Meets Bed Stuy (Dirty A-Rabs, 2005)
Not unlike Dangermouse's The Grey Album, which blended Jay-Z acapellas with beats sampled from The Beatles' White Album or, as I like to call it, The Beatles, DJ Cappel and Smitty's Blue Eyes Meets Bed Stuy combines the late, great Biggie Smalls' vocals with beats created from samples of Frank Sinatra records.

JUICY - NEW YORK, NEW YORK

You'll have to hear this one yourself to get an idea of how cool it is, but they blended Biggie's spoken intro from "Sky's the Limit" ("Good evening, ladies and gentlemen...") with the music from "New York, New York." I do kinda wish that they would've used more than just one verse from "Juicy" though.

EVERYDAY STRUGGLE - A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A FOOL

"Everyday Struggle" over "A Day in the Life of a Fool" actually works a little bit better as a song just because the music from "Fool" lends itself a little bit more naturally to a hip-hop beat than "NY, NY." It's not in the ballpark of the original though and there's less of a novelty here if you've never heard the Sinatra original.

NASTY BOY - FOR EVERY MAN THERE'S A WOMAN

"Nasty Boy" was always one of the lazier ideas for a beat on Life After Death anyway, so it's cool anytime someone attempts a remake of it (and there must be quite a few of them by now), but this beat didn't really do much for me at all. Listening to it, you wouldn't even necessarily know it was Sinatra if it weren't for his voice on the chorus.

COME ON - MY WAY OF LIFE

Awesome. Sinatra's "My Way of Life" has a dark feel that matches the ominous nature of Biggie's lyrics.

INTERLUDE - THE WORLD WE KNOW (OVER & OVER)

Whatever.

DEAD WRONG - IN MY ROOM (NANCY SINATRA)

Not unlike what they did with "Come On," though I don't like it as much. I should mention that they did a pretty good job of matching Biggie's vocals with the tempo of these beats throughout, even if it was just a matter of a few mouse clicks in whatever software they used.

LET'S GET IT ON (FEAT. 2PAC) - RAIN IN MY HEART

One of those songs Biggie did with 'Pac.

HYPNOTIZE - LITTLE GREEN APPLES

Part of the problem I'm having with this is that they don't always seem to do much with the Sinatra originals other than loop a few bars of the instrumental parts of his records and then they might have him sing a little bit where the chorus would be normally.

INTERLUDE

I mean it works, but there's very little novelty to it, especially after the first coupla songs on here, which I thought was supposed to be the point of these mash-ups in the first place.

10 CRACK COMMANDMENTS - FOOLS RUSH IN

Weak. They should've known better than to go near the 10 Crack Commandments if they weren't going to bring their a-game.

RUNNIN', VICTORY 2004 - A LONG NIGHT

Meh.

UNFOOLISH (FEAT. ASHANTI) - OUT BEYOND THE WINDOW

Ashanti? Nooooo! Actually, this is the lyrics from "Fuckin' You Tonight" with the chorus from "Unfoolish" where R Kelly's vocals would've been normally, if you can imagine.

COMMENTS: I like this, of course, as a concept, but I can only really give it like a C as far as the actual execution is concerned. It would be interesting to see what Dangermouse could do with Biggie's vocals over Sinatra, or anybody for that matter. If P Diddy had any sense, he would try to hook that up rather than whatever that Biggie Duets album is he's been talking about.

BEST TRACKS: "Juicy/New York, New York" "Come On/My Way of Life"

BONUS: Download MP3 snippets