Frank Sinatra vs Freddie Mercury/Rap Meanings

Frank Sinatra:
'''Ho, what's wrong with your face, baby? Yikes!'''

(Frank starts out by saying that there's something wrong with Mercury's face, and it just looks plain ugly.)

With those teeth, when you're through, there'll be no dust left to bite!

(Freddie had very large teeth. "Another One Bites the Dust" was a song by Queen, so Sinatra says that if Mercury bit some dust, his big teeth would bite all of it.)

'''Christ! News flash, kid: this is show business!'''

("There's No Business Like Show Business" was a song recorded by Frank Sinatra. He's also telling Freddie that he has to look presentable for show business, since he supposes Mercury doesn't know how to be formal like him.)

Show some class when you dress, shave that bush off your lips

(Frank Sinatra was known to have dressed in fancy suits and tuxedos, showing that he has class. On the other hand, Freddie Mercury, similar to Lady Gaga, wore some flamboyant clothing. He's also implying that his mustache is big and poorly groomed, and he might as well shave it off.)

'''Boom! Your band's named Queen, huh? Ain't that sweet.'''

(Freddie Mercury is the lead singer of Queen, a British rock band. Sinatra thinks the name of their band sounds girly, as "queen" can sometimes refer to a gay person. Sinatra also criticized rock and roll music, so he sarcastically comments about how the name sounds feminine for a rock and roll band.)

You dance like you rode a bicycle race with no seat.

(Riding a bicycle without a seat would mean the pole in which the seat stands on would be creating an "up and down" motion into the area of interest for homosexuals, so Sinatra says that Mercury dances badly. "Bicycle Race" is the name of a Queen song.)

That's what's wrong with you people, you'll do anything to get famous.

(People like Freddie would do anything to get fame. He could also be talking about people from Mercury's time period do anything to stand out.)

'''You changed your name to Mercury. You should've been Freddie Uranus!'''

(Before he was famous, Freddie's name was Farrokh Bulsara. He changed it to Mercury, which is the name of a planet like Uranus. Uranus is pronounced like "your anus", so Sinatra thinks that would have fit more with his character, because Freddie was bisexual.)

Freddie Mercury:
You think I haven't heard those things before?

(Freddie has had lots of homophobic harassment in the past, so these gay jokes are nothing new to him.)

You're just a bully who's too scared to go to war.

(Mercury is saying that he's gotten ridiculed in the past and that Sinatra's no different. He also says Sinatra's a wimp who's too scared to fight because Sinatra reportedly used his "mafia" connections to avoid serving in World War II.)

You had a hit song called My Way, but someone else wrote it.

(In 1968, Paul Anka wrote a song for Sinatra called "My Way", and Sinatra claimed that he wrote it after it became a hit song. Mercury finds it ironic that while Frank was singing about doing things his own way, his song was written by another person.)

You're the least talented rat in your whole pack of rodents.

(Mercury is referring to the Rat Pack, the nickname given to the cast of the 1965 film Ocean's Eleven. Besides Sinatra, other members included Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, Jr. He also says that out of these "rodents", or members of the Rat Pack, Sinatra had the least amount of talent.)

'''You've got four notes in your whole range. You can't act, and you can't dance.'''

(Mercury had one of the largest vocal ranges in recorded history, so if you compare that to Sinatra's small range of notes, and it makes him looks like a lame singer. Freddie is also calling Sinatra a bad actor and dancer.)

I'm more powerful than you when I'm wearing women's pants.

(This goes back to Sinatra's line telling him to wear clothes with more class. Members of Queen were dressed as women in the music video for "I Want to Break Free". Freddie was known to wear female clothing, and even though he looks flamboyant as a bisexual, he's still more manly and powerful than Sinatra.)

'''Why do you stand there in a suit? It's like you're trying to bore me!'''

(Sinatra wears sophisticated fancy clothes like a suit and tuxedo. As another response to Sinatra, Mercury says that people in suits aren't very entertaining.)

When I rock the UK, South America gets horny.

(Queen is originally a band from the United Kingdom. Queen's tour in South America was one of the most famous band tours of all time, and he's saying that South America got horny because of his beauty. Another one of Queen's songs is "We Will Rock You", which in here, refers to Queen rocking to other countries.)

Because my songs have balls, they're the anthems of victory!

(As Sinatra performs many swing and love songs, Mercury's songs are manly due to their rock nature. Some of their lyrics also talk about victory, such as "We Are The Champions".)

Your music is like the soundtrack to a vasectomy!

(A vasectomy is a surgical operation where a man is sterilized, meaning he can no longer ejaculate and therefore cannot reproduce. The operation often results in pain and maybe screaming. He's saying that listening to Frank Sinatra's songs is like being given a vasectomy – they cause physical pain to hear.)

You're in the pocket of the mafia and everybody knows.

(In the late 1960s, Sinatra was accused of being a mafia leader by FBI leader J. Edgar Hoover. Sinatra denied any ties with the mafia, but he was friends with many people convicted in the mafia.)

Guinea dago!

(Mercury is executing a blow that will be explained shortly.)

Frank Sinatra (interjecting):
Guinea dago?

(Sinatra is caught off-guard.)

Freddie Mercury:
Guinea dago, figaro!

(Guinea and dago are two offensive slur words for Italian Americans, a race of Sinatra's descent. It's a reference to the "Galileo" section of the 1975 Queen song Bohemian Rhapsody, in which the line is "Galileo, Galileo, Galileo, Figaro!" "Guinea" stands for the Guinea African Coast, implying Italians are not white, and "dago" is a racial slur which stands for Italians.)

Frank Sinatra:
Easy, jaws of life, I can't stand a racist.

(The Jaws of Life are huge hydraulic scissors used by firefighters to cut open car doors. Clearly, Frank is making another joke to Freddie’s large teeth. He also doesn't want to involve any other racist statements in this battle, as Mercury’s last line about Guinea and Dago are discriminatory terms for Italians like Frank.)

I love the coloreds and the queers, just ask Sammy Davis!

(Frank got a reputation of being racist and homophobic, though he also tried ending segregation for casinos in Las Vegas. He tries to call blacks and gays by "the coloreds and the queers" because those were slightly less offensive terms in his era. Since there's been lots of homophobic lines from Frank and racist ones from Freddie, he tries denying that he's actually against gays and colored people. Sammy Davis, Jr. was a black singer/actor, who was also a member of Sinatra's Rat Pack. He was bisexual, also known for once guest starring on the 1970s sitcom "All in the Family" and kissing main character Archie Bunker on the cheek. As a friend of Sinatra, he tries to show that he can cooperate with a colored bisexual.)

Look, we all want to swing, baby, but you took it too far.

(Swing was a very popular form of jazz in Frank Sinatra’s prime and Sinatra would sing primarily swing songs with various big bands. To swing also meant having sex with another person's partner, but Sinatra thinks Mercury having sex with guys is taking it too far.)

You played butthole roulette, and you lost the draw!

(Sinatra makes a joke that Mercury had anal sex with other gay men, and roulette is a gambling game of chance, so since Freddie did it with too many guys, he lost his luck and got AIDS, which caused him to die.)

Freddie Mercury:
I took one for both teams from a disease no one knew existed.

(Taking one for both teams is referring to Mercury's bisexuality, as in sacrificing himself for both gay and straight people; AIDS was virtually unknown until the 1980's, whereupon a handful of celebrities had been diagnosed with it.  At the time of its unmasking, AIDS was thought to be exclusive to gays, a myth debunked by later high-profile cases involving straights)

I didn't leave a mark on history, I French-kissed it!

(To 'leave a mark on history' means to leave a large legacy behind after you die. French-kissing is a very passionate form of kissing, so Mercury is saying that he had a huge legacy, while also possibly making reference to his own bisexuality.)

I'm a champion of the world, extinguished in his prime!

(A champion of the world is referring to the line in the Queen song "We are the Champions", as one of the lines says "We are the champions of the world." Mercury died at the age of 45, extinguished in his prime age.)

So kiss my ass Frankie, but you'll have to wait in line.

(Yet another homosexual joke, saying that there are other people that have already lined up to kiss his ass and that Sinatra will have to wait for his turn. He is also stating that he is so amazing, people would line up to kiss his ass, a thing that the average person would not do.)