Well, that was exhausting.

Round One of our Jewish Celebrity March Madness had some predictable results (did anyone really think Jake Tapper could take the Notorious RBG?), but also some upsets, and some really close races.  Here’s a recap of just a few showdowns:

• Neither member of Broad City is making it past the first round! Abbi and Ilana won’t have to go head to head.
• Winona Ryder held a lead on Rachel Weisz until the last few hours of the competition, and then BOOM! Ditto a last-minute reversal taking the round from Paul Rudd and giving it to ScarJo.
• Bette vs. Babs? Dylan vs. Joel? Bette, and Joel, it turns out.
• In a stunning turn of events, Drake is out in the first round! Let’s hear it for Daveed Diggs!
• Bernie loses, yet again, though this was much closer than the 2016 primaries.

And so, we present to you, the Round 2 bracket:

Go ahead and vote below; you have until Friday morning the 24th, 9 a.m. Eastern Time. Also, keep tweeting us angrily (new hashtag— #JewishCelebs); you had the moral high-ground for Round 1, but now, these are your picks.

And is the anticipation killing you? Well, if you sign up for emails below, you’ll have the results of Round 2 emailed to you, before Round 3 is live:

THE ACTORS:

THE MUSICIANS:

MOVERS AND SHAKERS:

OTHER:

The post March Madness Continues: ROUND 2! appeared first on Jewcy.

Since it’s a Jewish love holiday, why not songs about love (and sex, and relationships) by Jewish artists?  The rule was that at least one songwriter and the vocalist have to be Jewish, (So, Joey Ramone leading the Ramones covering “Baby, I Love You,” by three Jewish songwriters, qualifies).

The result is sort of… bizarre. Jews hold (and have held) a diverse presence in popular music over the last several decades, in pretty much every genre there is.

And so, this playlist has Drake. And Carole King. And Peaches. And Vanessa Carlton. And Neil Diamond. And P!nk. And Lesley Gore. And Matisyahu. And Paula Abdul. And Haim. And Tom Lehrer. And Amy Winehouse. And more.

You can listen below, but just put it on shuffle.  There’s no way to make the order make any sense.

If any of you are bold enough to smooch a partner to this playlist, let us know how that works out for you.

And if you want to hear a bit of this in a room full of other people, we hope to see you at the party tonight!

We give you, AHAVA:

Image credit: Wikimedia

The post A Jewish L-O-V-E Playlist appeared first on Jewcy.

Teen shows come and go, but Degrassi will always be the best adolescent soap opera of all time (fight me). The Canadian drama premiered in its first incarnation in 1989, and exists today: its 500th episode is on the horizon. But the show’s best run was in the early-mid 2000s, when it was called Degrassi: The Next Generation (fight me again).

If you didn’t watch the show about everything from eating disorders to bullying to moving in with your significant other when you’re both in high school and it’s a terrible idea (REALLY, Sean and Ellie??), you’re maybe familiar with it for another reason: Drake.

Everyone loves reminiscing about Drake’s tenure on the show, beginning when he was fifteen (he played Jimmy, popular kid and basketball star who was totally dating Ashley at the beginning of the series until she tried ecstasy this one time and went goth as a result and he was too preppy for her so then he dated Hazel for a while who was hiding her Somali Muslim heritage due to post 9/11 racism but then they broke up and he got back together with Ashley and at some point he was also paralyzed by a school shooting and you get the idea).

But the Jewish rapper wasn’t the show’s only Member of the Tribe— by a long shot.

Canada is a little over 1% Jewish (less Jewish than the U.S., but way higher than an average country). And if you watched Degrassi, you might agree with that statistic. But behind the scenes, Jews are amply represented. Let’s go through the half dozen from the show’s heyday!

1. Drake: Yeah, he’s super Jewish. We all know.

2. Jake Goldsbie played Toby, the token Jewish character. Toby is dorky in appearance and personality, and is So Jewish because he lost family in the Holocaust, and in one unfortunate moment, during a holiday pageant stood up and recited the English lyrics to “Chanukah Oh Chanukah” (because it’s not like Judaism has any fun holiday music, right?). Goldsbie is also Jewish in real life.

3. Shane Kippel played Spinner, the popular slacker who in the early days of the show struggled with ADD and had shenanigans over the years that included becoming a born-again Christian. But Kippel is far from that: not only is he Jewish, but one of his three brothers lives in Israel.

4. Stacey Farber played Ellie, the punk girl with an Avril Lavigne-vibe (this is Canada, after all), and in one story arc struggled with self-harm. Once again, unlike her character, Farber is Jewish too.

5. Lauren Collins played Paige, the sassy blonde cheerleader (of non-Jewish Ukranian descent) whose best-known storyline is her survival of sexual assault and her subsequent attempts to bring her rapist to justice. Collins is, surprise, a Member of the Tribe!

6. Jake Epstein played the sweet and troubled Craig, to whom pretty much everything happened (to name but a few: impregnating a girl at school, having an abusive father who then died, having bipolar disorder). Epstein has always been very involved in Jewish communities (he was raised Conservative and even went to Jewish camp). His mother, Kathy Kacer is the daughter of Holocaust survivors who writes books about the Shoah.

These days, Epstein lives in New York and does theatre: for example, he starred on Broadway in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical originating the role of Gerry Goffin.

So we salute you, Jewish Degrassi kids. Thank you for bringing real issues to teens around the world at a breathtaking rate (your characters always did have rotten luck).  Jewishness onscreen was minimal, but you all brought your yiddishe neshamas!

Image Credit: Wikipedia

The post Everyone on ‘Degrassi’ is Jewish appeared first on Jewcy.

How many white Jews do you know who hang out with Cam’ron and Drake? Not too many, eh? Meet Eric and Jeff Rosenthal, two brothers with a serious love for the rap game and an inherent sense of frenzied Jewish humor. Eric and Jeff (AKA ItsTheReal), began making hip hop sketch videos for fun and have gone on to amass hundreds of videos, a podcast, and a hip hop comedy mixtape, Urbane Outfitters Vol 1., featuring verses by rappers such as Bun B,  Maino, and Lil Jon. Their most recent music video, “Jews for Jesus Piece,” features the brothers ghost-riding a Zipcar and folding laundry with hot models in a laundromat.

I recently had coffee/hot chocolate/tea with Eric and Jeff on Upper West Side. The two brothers are known for their finger-popping gunshots and a list of AKA’s that tout their gangster-fied names of the day. From inducting Stevie Wonder into the “Jewish Bar Mitzvah Hall of Fame” to hanging out with rapper Cam’ron and his Instagram-famous girlfriend Juju, we spoke about their approach to music, rap, sketch comedy, and hanging with rap idols. 

How’d you come up with your name, ItsTheReal?

Eric: Well, we were originally known as TheReal, because every rapper claimed to be real; Young Jeezy, Kanye, but they all have such disparate backgrounds. So we were like, we’ll be “The Real,” we’ll be the definition they’re all searching for and we’ll be the truth. We were going to do thereal.com but unfortunately it was taken, so we were just like, alright, how do we secure our SEO? And then we came up with ItsTheReal.

When did you decide that you were going to pursue hip-hop comedy full time? What were you doing before? When did it get serious?

Eric: I went to school to be a feature film writer and director. I ended up working with Kanye West as a videographer of his and went to the Grammys with him. I came back to New York and started working for different record labels on a freelance basis… it’s a bizarre, funny, other type of world.

Jeff: I started working for HBO, they had a comedy website that was terrible. Then when that started to go bankrupt we were like, let’s do something together that teams up hip hop and comedy and puts us in front of the camera in a new and exciting way.

How did you get into hip hop?

Jeff: We loved hip hop from the beginning; we grew up on hip hop and Hot 97 and would come down to the city a lot to experience city life, which started to turn hip hop just naturally on its own.

Eric: We would go on road trips with our parents and beg them to play our rap tapes. They wouldn’t let us listen to this or that because of their viewpoints on how rap considered women or different social things. They just didn’t understand it for the longest time, but as it became more popular and as it became more of our lives, what they didn’t get at the time, they get now. They’d be like, “How do you guys relate,” or “what do you take from this?” We have such a high respect for the culture and everything that we’ve done is to build upon, never to break down.

How did you become friends with all these rappers?

Jeff: We were putting out sketch videos every Monday. We got 40,000 views and kept growing. I remember the first time we went out and started getting recognized by all these people we grew up on, and it was such a weird experience… the first rapper to reach out to us to make a video was Bun B. Bun is always an early adopter in terms of what’s cool on the Internet and what’s next. We shot a video with him and once that happened, it opened up the floodgates. We met with Cam’ron through his label president.

Eric: Overall, we speak the language. We are a part of this culture—we go out, we’re seen everywhere, we go to all these events, people want to be apart of something that’s different, funny, and fresh. Being real life friends was just an extension of that—now rappers will call us up and talk about everyday things.

Any surprises from any of the people you’ve worked with? Experiences you didn’t expect?

Eric: I forget who said it, maybe Dave Chappelle, “All comedians want to be rappers and all rappers want to be comedians.” They all think they’re funny, and to some degree a lot of them are. Bun B likes The Office and Parks and Recreation. Maino is amazingly funny. Any of these guys who are able to express their humor for us, it’s refreshing for us as well as for them. It’s always pleasantly surprising when Cam’ron’s like “I’m totally with you guys and whatever you want to do, I’m about it.”

Jeff: Cam’ron was super-surprising because when we were doing that video with him, immediately he was like, “I just want to do it correctly, don’t just tell me yes because you guys are trying to be nice.”

Did you meet Juju, Cam’ron’s long time love?

Jeff: Yes. One of the biggest mistakes in our lives to this point was been that we did not take an Instagram photo with her and write, “Jew, Jew, Juju.”

You guys met Stevie Wonder, too, right?

Jeff: We had to go through the most security we’ve ever gone through to get to anybody. It was just short of the president… My joke to Stevie was that over the years he’s made a ton of songs for bar and bat mitzvahs, so we would like to make a toast to welcome him as an honorary Jew—and he said l’chaim! We surprised him with “Do I Do” as “Jew I Jew” and he started to sing with us.

What was it like transferring from sketch comedy to rapping?

Eric: Our career has four different phases. First was doing the sketches every Monday morning for four years, then we did a podcast for a year. Then we did the MTV interviews which was a total departure for us because we’re not journalists and we’re not looking for deep, dark secrets or anything, we just wanted to have fun and do something totally left of what everyone else was doing. And then we did the music. So all four of these things together are a good indication of who we are. Doing the music was only natural after the sort of narrative we’ve built.

We take tropes that are known throughout the world in the most popular generation of music and flip it on its ear.  We wouldn’t be taken seriously if we put out a real rap record, but we’re taken very seriously when putting out a comedy rap record. 

Who would you like to work with that you haven’t?

Eric: Drake or Rick Ross.

Jeff: Drake. This is who we really are. We’re just hip hop nerds.

(Feature photo by Lauren Farmer)

The post ‘Spotlight On’: Eric and Jeff Rosenthal of ItsTheReal appeared first on Jewcy.

Just hold on Drake’s going home…cause it is too damn cold! Fresh off his recent Saturday Night Live gig, Drake has a new profession to add to his growing list: weather man.

“Your local weather in Drake style”can be found here with an image of Drake from the cover of his recent album, Nothing Was the Same.

I think there should be music playing in the background, because as of now the site is pretty plain; just Drake in the sky, guiding you on how to dress for your day.

Coolest aspect? The site changes the image of the surrounding sky to reflect the weather of your actual location.

HYFR!

(Photo by Getty)

The post Drake is Your New Weather Guru appeared first on Jewcy.

The world (or maybe just me) kvells when they find out a black rapper is in fact, a Jew.

Drake hosted, performed, and “killed it” on SNL this past Saturday, where he publicly apologized for the YOLO trend, gave a shout out to his Degrassi roots, and alerted everyone that he is….a member of the tribe!

By addressing every one of his truths: being black, being Jewish, celebrating Hanukkah, chilling with Weezy, and dating Rihanna, he gave critics absolutely nothing to respond, but in laughter. Yes, Drake is a walking set of contradictions, and yes his intonations and grammar change depending on who he is talking to, but that’s what makes Aubrey, Aubrey. His self-deprecating skit on SNL show’s he’s truly comfortable with all of that.

This “flashback” moment pokes fun at most every single black and Jewish stereotype and features a performance by Drake rapping about Boca Raton and purple drinks: Manischewitz (what were you thinking?).

(Photo by Getty)

The post Drake’s SNL Bar Mitzvah Sketch appeared first on Jewcy.

Drizzy is back on the grind–but was he ever off it? Never; YOLO, OVO, #startedfromthebottom, (OK, I’m done). Aubrey Graham A.K.A “Champagne Papi” released two new songs days before the new year, right in time to pop (and spray) champagne in celebration of “Trophies” and “We Made it”.

The 27-year-old rapper’s song, “Trophies,” was cut from his September-released album, Nothing Was the Same. The song begins with a regal trumpet opening (red carpets, roll out) which carries along to a rapid bass beat. This song showcases Drizzy growing up, doing all this for “him,” and just tryna’ stay alive and “take care of his people.”

The second song, “We Made It,” is a remix of a Soulja Boy track. This song has a “hard” feel to it, blaring the “n-word” as soon as the track begins. This is surely Drake’s New Year anthem. This is Drake telling all y’all he is NOT slowing down anytime soon.

Also, tune in to SNL on January 18th. The Toronto-rapper will also be hosting and performing!

#OVO out.

(Photo by Getty)

The post Drizzy Releases New Tracks appeared first on Jewcy.

In a poor area of Philadelphia, Strawberry Mansion High School has long been considered one of the country’s most dangerous schools. But in May, ABC News aired a special with Diane Sawyer about the school’s struggles, and since then things have begun to turn around.

But after the special, a tidal wave of generosity from viewers helped breathe new life into Strawberry Mansion. Money donated by viewers helped to pay for school uniforms and to provide 13 scholarships for seniors heading off to college, as well as basic necessities that were missing at Strawberry Mansion, including books, notebooks and calculators.

Since Strawberry Mansion didn’t have the funding for a choir teacher, Drake, having seen ABC’s special, stepped in. When his tour went to Philadelphia, he met with the students, revealing an awesome gift:

“I wanted to let you know that in the next few months I’m building a recording studio inside your school so anybody that’s interested in music, you know anybody that wants to rap, sing. I want to encourage you, I want to encourage you to utilize that facility and try to make whatever dreams you have to come true,” he told them.

Get some tissues, and watch the moment here:

Strawberry Mansion High, Once One of US’s Most Dangerous Schools, Receives Hope, Help [ABC News]

The post Drake Helps Students at Struggling Philadelphia High School appeared first on Jewcy.

Recently, Drake memes have been making the rounds. I mean, he’s probably used to it what with all the “mufucka never loved us”— Drizzy can obviously handle the criticism. But, knowing his signature style, he’s probably a little sad about it—that is what all the memes are about after all. There’s @AllThese, a Twitter handle mocking Drake’s pouty, punny lyricism. Some other [NSFW] sites, and now there’s Extreme DrakeOver from Elite Daily. The stars of this short take their macho friend and make him Drizzier.

Does your friend act like a tough guy? Does he never let his guard down? Is he someone who’s almost impossible to read? Sounds like he may be a perfect subject for an Extreme Drakeover!

Extreme Drakeover takes your hard-ass friends and makes them soft again by turning them into Drake! Never again will you have to worry about your friend being unemotional; now, he practically won’t stop crying! This new Elite TV classic documents the process of how to turn your good friend into a giant wussy.

All these hits and Drake’s still taking punches. That’s OK though. You can poke fun at Drake and love him all the same.

Watch and enjoy.

The post Watch Elite Daily’s ‘Extreme DrakeOver’ appeared first on Jewcy.

If you’ve got 10 minutes to spare—and you want to spend them super wisely—you should check out Drake’s new video for “Worst Behavior,” off his latest album, Nothing Was the Same. Filmed in Memphis, from where his father hails, the video is meant to paint a wider picture of Drake’s background. Drizzy is more than just T Dot, you know. Vibe reports.

“My family is like two different worlds and I feel like people only acknowledge one half of it,” Drake told VIBE following the Charlotte stop of his Would You Like A Tour? run. “I have a lot of family that I love very deeply [in Memphis]. But if anybody knows anything about the South and how it is, it’s tough to go around people who could use your help and you can’t help everybody. It’s like a guilt or a burden that comes over me, so I hadn’t gone to Memphis in a long time.”

So sit back, relax, and get ready to be a little confused and a lot of entertained. You’ll see the famous Beale Street. You’ll hear jokes about hush puppies the food versus Hush Puppies the shoes. And you’ll fall in love when Drizzy holds a very cute little boy, envisioning a life with him as your husband. Too much? Sort of sorry.

Enjoy, Drake lovers, haters, and all around Drake participators.

Drake ~ Worst Behavior from OctobersVeryOwn on Vimeo.

The post Watch Drake’s New Video for ‘Worst Behavior’ appeared first on Jewcy.