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Rap Meanings


ERBoH22Meaning

Frank Sinatra:

Ho! What's wrong with your face, baby? Yikes!

(Sinatra starts out by asking why something is wrong with Mercury's face because it looks ugly.)

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

(Mercury had a notable overbite resulting from him having four extra teeth which he famously never had removed because of his belief that they made him sing better. "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 until none is left. The song is written from the viewpoint of a killer with a gun, with "biting the dust" being slang for an abrupt death from shooting.)

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

("There's No Business Like Show Business" was a song recorded by Frank Sinatra. He also tells Mercury that he has to look presentable for show business and supposes that Mercury has no idea on how to be formal like him.)

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

(Sinatra was known to have dressed in fancy suits and tuxedos. On the other hand, Mercury wore flamboyant and informal clothing, such as vests, jeans, and even performed at Wembley wearing tracksuit bottoms. Sinatra thus contrasts the way Freddie dresses with how he dresses prim and properly. He also implies that Mercury's mustache (or "bush") is too big and poorly groomed, stating that he would look better by shaving it off.)

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

(Mercury was 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, as can the word "sweet" in this context. This can also refer to a cross-dresser, or "drag queen," as Mercury sometimes wore women's clothing. Sinatra also criticized rock and roll music, so he sarcastically comments about how the name sounds feminine for a rock and roll band. He could also be condescending about the fact that Queen named their band after the monarch of their country. This may be a nod to Sinatra's song "Ain't She Sweet.")

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. It is also a reference to the Queen song "Bicycle Race.")

That's what's wrong with you people; you'll do anything to get famous!

(Sinatra says that people like Mercury seek attention to get fame or stand out. 1980s pop music in the UK was notoriously flashy and eccentric.)

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

(Mercury's real name was Farrokh Bulsara before he changed it to Mercury, which is the name of a planet like Uranus. Uranus is pronounced "your anus," so Sinatra thinks that would have fit more with his character since he was bisexual but preferred anal sex with men.)

Freddie Mercury:

You think I haven't heard those things before?

(Mercury faced harassment all throughout his career for being LGBT, so to him, these gay jokes are nothing new. Because of this, he thinks Sinatra's insults are unoriginal.)

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

(Mercury says that being ridiculed in the past makes Sinatra no different from bullies he already faced before. Sinatra often used his associations with powerful people to threaten others he didn't get along with. Despite his intimidation using insults, Mercury calls Sinatra a wimp who was too scared to fight in World War II because Sinatra reportedly used his "mafia" connections to avoid serving. According to an FBI investigation, Sinatra paid a $40,000 bribe to doctors in New Jersey in order to escape the draft. It was stated that he was considered unfit for duty because of a perforated ear drum, but many believed he purposely backed out and was considered a coward since he continued having a lavish lifestyle.)

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." The song itself is known to be a rip-off of the song "Comme d'habitude" ("As Per Usual") by French singer Claude François. Paul Anka purchased the rights of the song to make a cover of it. Mercury finds it ironic that while Sinatra 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!

(The Rat Pack, the nickname given to the cast of the 1965 film Ocean's Eleven, consists of Sinatra, Dean Martin, Peter Lawford, Joey Bishop, and Sammy Davis, Jr.; Sinatra also performed with Martin and Davis under this name. He also says that out of these "rodents," or members of the Rat Pack, Sinatra had the least amount of talent. At the same time, Mercury continues taunting Sinatra for his alleged connections to the mafia as a rat is someone who betrays loyalty to the mafia by confessing who committed crimes in their gang to avoid punishment, leading to them being seen as a lowly traitor.)

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

(Mercury was believed to have had one of the largest vocal ranges in recorded history (most put his vocal range to be around four octaves), so comparing that to Sinatra's small range of notes makes him look like an inferior singer (in reality, Sinatra's range was three octaves, which, while not bad, is still inferior to Mercury's). Furthermore, Mercury calls Sinatra a bad actor and dancer.)

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

(Mercury rebuts 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," and even though Mercury dresses flamboyantly as a bisexual, he claims to be more manly and powerful than Sinatra.)

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

(Sinatra wore sophisticated fancy suits and tuxedos, which is clothing often associated with businessmen and formal, serious jobs, which Mercury points out here as being mundane in contrast to the creative clothes that he often performed in. Mercury also points out that in Sinatra's performances, he only stood there in these clothes and sang without much movement while Mercury had a major stage presence and was extremely lively during his concerts.)

When I rock the UK, South America gets horny

(Queen is originally a band from the United Kingdom, and Mercury says they rocked it in reference to the Queen song "We Will Rock You." Queen's The Game Tour in South America was one of the most famous band tours of all time, and he says that many South Americans got horny from excitement over his beauty and voice.)

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

(While Sinatra performed many swing and love songs, Mercury's songs are manly and motivational 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 the vas deferens (the tubes that carry sperm out of the testes) are severed and tied off. The semen of a man with a vasectomy will not contain any sperm, and therefore he cannot reproduce. It is an uncomfortable operation with a painful recovery period, so Mercury says listening to Sinatra's songs is physically painful to hear like being given a vasectomy. This also references his previous line, implying that while Mercury's own songs have balls, Sinatra's songs are like getting them cut off. Likewise, Sinatra's songs are often slower.)

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

(In the late 1960s, Sinatra was accused of having connections with the Mafia by FBI leader J. Edgar Hoover. Sinatra denied any ties with the Mafia, but he was friends with many people who were convicted for being in the Mafia. Mercury could also be referring to an incident where his son, Frank Sinatra Jr., was kidnapped by the mafia and released 2 days later after his father paid a ransom of $240,000.)

Guinea dago!

(Guinea and dago are two slurs to Italians, and since Sinatra was a famous Italian-American, Mercury says this to him as an insult as many Italian-Americans, including Sinatra's own family, were discriminated in the early decades of the 20th century with these types of slurs. "Guinea" stands for the Guinea African Coast, implying Italians are not white, and "dago" is an ethnic slur used to refer to Italian people.)

Frank Sinatra (interjecting):

Guinea dago?

(Sinatra is caught off-guard by Mercury calling him such slurs.)

Freddie Mercury:

Guinea dago, figaro!

(This is a reference to the "Galileo" section of the 1975 Queen song "Bohemian Rhapsody," in which the line is "Galileo, Galileo, Galileo, Galileo, Galileo, Figaro!")

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, so Sinatra jokes again about Mercury's large teeth. He also doesn't want to involve racist statements in this battle, as Mercury's last line included discriminatory terms for Italians like Sinatra. At the same time, Britain, where Queen comes from, has had a history of racism in its past, especially during the era of imperialism and colonialism. Sinatra famously stood up for black performers and considered them equal, often fighting for them to be included in segregated places. This line may also be a reference to Queen's infamous South African tour. Due to the fact that the tour had violated sanctions that the UK and many countries placed on South Africa in order to demand an end to apartheid, Queen's popularity took a great hit because of this and the band was subsequently fined by the British Musician's Union. )

I love the coloreds and the queers. Just ask Sammy Davis!

(Though Sinatra tried ending segregation for casinos in Las Vegas, he gained a reputation of being racist and homophobic during the last years of his life. He tries to call blacks and gays by "the coloreds and the queers" (which were considered less offensive terms in his era). Sinatra denies being against LGBT people and colored people, in which Mercury himself would fit into, as he was born in Zanzibar to Indian Parsi parents. 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 wanna swing, baby, but you took it too far.

(Swing was a very popular form of jazz in 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 had too much sex with guys and took it too far because...)

You played butthole roulette, and you lost the draw!

(...he ended up getting HIV/AIDS (which he later died from). Roulette is a gambling game of chance, involving the spinning of a wheel, so Sinatra jokingly compares Mercury's constantly having sex with roulette and says that Mercury ended up getting HIV/AIDS and dying from it because he lost his luck)

Freddie Mercury:

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

(Taking one for both teams refers to Mercury's bisexuality, meaning he sacrificed himself for both gay and straight people; HIV/AIDS was virtually unknown until the 1980s, whereupon a handful of celebrities were diagnosed with it. At the time of its arrival in the United States, HIV/AIDS was thought to be exclusive to gays due to the first cases of HIV/AIDS in the US being reported in homosexual men in Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco, a myth debunked by later high-profile cases involving straights, and Mercury was among the first celebrities to contract it.)

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 says that he left more than a huge mark in music while also making reference to his own bisexuality.)

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

(A champion of the world refers 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—in his prime age—one day after publicly acknowledging he had HIV/AIDS. Since being extinguished would normally be said for a fire or light being doused, Mercury compares himself to being as hot as fire, which could come from a lyrics on the song "Don't Stop Me Now," which says, "I'm burning through the sky! Two hundred degrees, that's why they call me Mr. Fahrenheit!")

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

(Another homosexual joke, saying that there are other people that have already lined up to kiss Mercury's ass and that Sinatra will have to wait for his turn since kissing someone's ass means having to respect them out of superiority. He also states that he is so amazing, people would line up to kiss his ass. "Kiss my ass" was also a lyric in the Queen song "Death on Two Legs," which is said to be directed at Queen's original manager Norman Sheffield, who is reputed to have mistreated the band and abused his managerial role.)

Scrapped lyrics

Frank Sinatra:

This is show business, baby, tuck in those lips.

(This lyric is what developed into the lyrics, "Christ! News flash, kid: this is show business! Show some class when you dress, shave that bush off your lips!" As an insult toward Mercury's mouth, Sinatra tells Mercury to tuck in his protruding lips to make himself more presentable.)

What, you got midgets putting chap stick on you in shifts?

(As a continuation of the previous line, Sinatra ponders why Mercury has such protruding lips, claiming it might be the result of midgets, or little people, putting chap stick on him in shifts, implying the referenced midgets performing oral sex on Mercury (as chap stick is worn on the lips, and, considering midgets are too short to reach Mercury's own lips, they must be applying said chap stick by transferring it from their lips to his genitalia). "Shifts" can be taken as a double-entendre, as it can mean work shifts, as well as British slang for kissing. This may be also referencing Mercury engaging in sexual activity in between recording sessions and even during live concerts.)

Oh! Jesus, kid what's wrong with your face?

(This lyric is what developed into the lyric, "(Ho!) What's wrong with your face, baby? Yikes!")

You got teeth and hair and shit all over the place!

(This lyric is what developed into the lyric, "With those teeth, when you're through, there'll be no dust left to bite!" Sinatra claims that Mercury has things like hair and teeth all over his face in a disfigured way.)


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