EDMONTON - Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, Joey Bishop.

Snoop Dogg and Ice Cube?

Could the hip hop duo's show last night at Rexall Place, part of their West Coast Originals Canadian tour, have been a prelude to the makings of a modern day Rat Pack? Would rap fly at Caesars Palace?

Sorry if that sounds like a potheaded idea, but there was plenty of cloud cover last night. Clearly, the arena's air filtration system wasn't up to snuff to cope with all the puff, puff, give. Suffice it to say that few in the crowd waited for Cube to sing Smoke Some Weed - from his latest album, Laugh Now, Cry Later - before sparking up. When he finally did ... woah. Nice try, security.

But, hey, all the Rat Pack trappings were there. Now, though, instead of "broads," you've got "hos," bumping and grinding against the stage barrier. Back then, an entourage. Now, tha Dogg Pound, Snoop's rapping cohorts, Kurupt and Daz Dilinger, who warmed up the crowd.

Many in the audience could likely trace their CD collections to the days of N.W.A. and Death Row Records. Others, maybe not so much, instead caught up in the hype, the rappers' silver screen status.

There's also an easy inclination to scoff at an audience's capacity to properly "represent" at gigs like Snoop's tour stop in Grande Prairie, of all places, a few nights ago - Cube had the night off. But as Cube pointed out on tunes like Why We Thugs, "Every 'hood is the same."

Fellow Westside Connection member WC, rapping alongside Cube, exalted him, letting us know that we were in the presence of greatness, bearing witness to one of the gangster-rap originators.

Initially, Cube blanched at the idea, looking almost bashful over the praise. But the black came back.

"A lot of people ask me, 'Cube, why you still rappin'? You makin' movie money now.' They got the nerve to ask me that.

"To all the dumb mother-(expletives!) who don't think I should still be rapping, you better check yo self before you wreck yo self," he shouted, before neatly segueing into, surprise, Check Yo Self.

Slick. Polished. Cube.

Backed by a drummer, bass player, three MCs, DJs, backup singers and black-clad go-go dancers, the nature of the Doggfather's over-the-top stage show could mean he might slide into a Tinsel-Town existence all too easily. His performance wasn't nearly as focused or on point as Cube's, but the crowd still ate up his far more laidback, smooth operator persona. He's definitely a lounge lizard waiting to happen.

Drifting, really, rather lazily through classics like 187, Snoop World and newer stuff like Vato - from his latest album, The Blue Carpet Treatment - Snoop drew the biggest reactions on the night for a duet with Cube and routinely wondering out loud whether anyone in tha' house had any weed.

It didn't seem to matter, though.

There's no denying that Snoop is one charismatic artist. By the time he came on, the crowd was so down with the icons' showing (or just plain showing up - how did Snoop make it across the border?), he could have smoked joints for all they cared. Chances are ...

Of course, to truly be a new Vegas Rat Pack (or is that "Rap Pack"?), Snoop and Cube would need to recruit a few more rapping/acting double-threats. Maybe Ice-T, LL Cool J, Fiddy.

Eminem?

Maybe not.

But if it did actually happen, their act would beat the you know what out of that alien Celine Dion.