MIXTAPE MADNESS

Snippet: Play

Biggie Interlude/ The World We Knew (Over and Over)
Ten Crack Commandments/ Fools Rush In
Everyday Struggle/ A Day in the Life of a Fool
Unfoolish/ Out Beyond The Window
Juicy/ New York, New York
Come On/ My Way Of Life
Runnin'/ Victory 2004/ A Long Night
Hypnotize/ Little Green Apples
Dead Wrong/ In My Room (Nancy Sinatra)

Blue Eyes Meets Bed-Stuy are DJ Cappel and Smitty. They've used two great dead guys to make one OK album of mash-ups. Blending Frank Sinatra and Biggie Smalls is predictable, but its marketablity is undeniable. Media giants are having multipule orgasms over the album: March 6, 2006,Newsweek, March 1, 2006, The Source, December 16, 2005, Spin and the credentials run deeper.

Does the hype fit the sneaker, well sort of. Fucking with Biggie Smalls is a sensitive subject. Duets was a complete dissipointment and rappers piggybacking classic Biggie verses is tired. DJ Cappel and Smitty properly execute blends on Blue Eyes Meets Bed-Stuy, but it's impossible to foul up a Biggie accapella (minues that Hypnotize/ Little Green Apples collision).

The selected Biggie tracks are from his various works and it's nice that DJ Cappel and Smitty did not pick apart Ready To Die. Sinatra tracks vary from his years at Capitol and Reprise. "Everyday Struggle"/ "A Day In The Life Of A Fool" accent each other causing mash-up perfection. "Everyday Struggle" is remembered as Biggie's coming-of-age rap that ends with Tek getting murdered and Biggie's shorty going to prision - kind of foolish, no. This blend is serious knowledge. After Sinatra founded Reprise he hired Don Costa, arranger/ conductor and a few years later Sinatra's My Way turned a lot of heads. Costa's arrangement on "A Day In The Life Of A Fool" projects that gutter-lush-life feel that Biggie's character is synonymous with. Respectively, Norman Glover and Lord Digga (Lord Digga of Masta Ace Inc. fame) produced "Everyday Struggle" that is a definate favorite for rap fans. Their production had those hard kicks that sped up Biggie's delivery leaving rap with a grimy classic.

"Ten Crack Commandments"/ "Fools Rush In" should be known as Premier and Nelson Riddle's musical bastard child. Riddle arranged/ conducted for Capitol throughout the `50s and was the main arranger for Sinatra's Nice 'n' Easy, the album "Fools Rush In" was featured on. The 1960 ballad pairs up with Premier's production and suddenly romanticizing bricks is OK.

Blue Eyes Meets Bed-Stuy is intelligence served through mash-ups and for all the cheese that could be pinned on this mixtape, we will ignore it; except "Hypnotize"/ "Little Green Apples," because it's mash-ups' ugly little cousin.

"Come On"/ "My Way Of Life" and "Nasty Boy"/ "For Every Man There's A Woman" are featured in their entirety at the Tofu Hut where there is savvy Ready To Die knowledge.