Beyonce took a break from her rigorous European tour schedule to visit the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam today. Judging by the photos posted to her Instagram account, it was an appropriately sombre affair, and no embarrassing Justin Bieber-esque gaffes were committed.

The Internet immediately broke into a frenzy of praise and analysis, the general tenor of which was: “Stars, they’re just like us: they visit Holocaust museums and feel sad!” This might seem like an absurd thing to Tweet about (and even sillier to blog about), but the cultural significance of the moment runs deeper than a “like” or two (or in this case, 648,000 Instagram “hearts”): millions of young people—many of whom might have only a superficial knowledge of the Holocaust—follow Beyonce on social media, and I’m guessing at least a few thousand of them will be curious enough to pick up a copy of The Diary of Anne Frank after seeing these photos. That can only be a good thing.

Writes Marc Tracy over at The New Republic:

As we scrolled through our Instagram feeds, past selfies and cat pictures, we were jarred to come across the world’s most famous pop star mugging with the iconic black-haired murdered Jewish girl. The Holocaust is jarring, and it serves us well to be jarred anew by it every so often. This picture allows us to recover our sense of wonder at its enormity and awfulness. Good for Beyoncé for putting us in that place.

Queen Bey, you’re all class.

Related: Beyonce Could Be Coming to Israel in June

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Is this for real or scripted? I don’t know, and I don’t care—either way, it’s amazing.

In this video, which you should watch right now—right now—three grandmothers read the lyrics to Beyonce’s suuuuppper sexy “Drunk in Love.” (It’s the Kanye West remix, which features a nice little “Bound 2” shout-out. Even better!)

From their effusive snacking to their horrified facial expressions to their gleeful disdain, these women are a joy to watch. They ask some very pertinent questions, like “Why did you even put this out for me to see?” and “We never talked when we had sex, what’s with all this talking?” Collectively, they are a three-headed Ur-Bubbe.

If Baz Luhrmann ever decides to wreak havoc on Macbeth and set it in Boca Raton (PLEASE GOD), I want these grandmothers cast as the witches.

Not sure if I agree with their final verdict on the song (that’s a whole other essay someone’s probably already written for Jezebel), but it would be great if this became a regular series. Working title: Grumpy old Rap Geniuses.

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Drake’s newest album Nothing Was The Same has leaked and it’s a happy Monday for us all. The track “Pound Cake/Paris Morton Music 2” features Jay-Z rapping about Benzes and Maybachs while Drizzy’s on about a potential visit to his high school reunion, you know, to show up all his classmates who teased him way back when.

Drake’s feeling confident on this track, claiming “When I’m ’bout to drop somethin’ crazy and I say I’m the greatest of my generation.” More like the greatest of The Next Generation– at Degrassi, amiright? Sorry, it just never gets old, Jimmy Brooks.

Nothing Was The Same officially drops on September 24, but it can be pre-ordered on iTunes if you simply cannot wait. We understand.

Drake Ft. Jay Z – Pound Cake/Paris Morton Music 2 [YouTube]

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• Get your Anthony Weiner puns ready: looks like the disgraced pol is looking into another run. [NYP]

• There’s a new Orthodox NCAA basketball player in town, and the Times is all over it. [NYT]

• Jewcy contributor Alex Aciman found Hitler’s toilet in New Jersey. [Tablet]

• Ophir Ben-Shetreet, a 17-year-old contestant on the Israel incarnation of reality talent show The Voice, was suspended from school for singing in public. [Forward]

• So, Courtney Love covered “99 Problems.” [Vulture]

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Have you heard the one about the nice lady who sat next to Jay-Z on the subway and asked who he was?

Well, her name is Ellen Grossman, and she talked to The Scroll’s Adam Chandler about her brush with viral video fame—her inadvertent cameo, filmed on the way to Hov’s final (of eight!) concert at the Barclays Center, is part of a documentary about Jay-Z released this week.

The 67-year-old Brooklyn-born artist says that after meeting Hov, she “went to Wikipedia to read about him.”

Adopt us, Ellen?

On Meeting Jay-Z on the Subway [The Scroll] Previously on Jewcy: Jay-Z Lit A Menorah Backstage All Eight Nights of His NYC Concert Series
Is Jay-Z the Most Powerful Jew in the Music Industry?

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What exactly inspired Rick Ross to name his latest mixtape The Black Bar Mitzvah? There’s not much in the text to give us any clues. Ross mentions the mixtape’s name a few times, but no more or less than he does Meek Mill’s upcoming Nightmares and Dreams (to be subtly released the day before Halloween!), his own previously released God Forgives, I Don’t, the upcoming Maybach Music Group tour, or the assortment of other projects and groups and associations that come with a mixtape released by the most powerful name in radio rap.

The only direct focus comes in the “Rosenberg” skit, in which New York DJ Peter Rosenberg sells out his heritage to take on the role of rabbi commenting on a “lavish” lunch spread and “the beautiful titties hanging out at the bar mitzvah service” (to be fair, I’d probably do this too if Rick Ross asked me). Weirdly, church organs and a Latin-sounding choir play in the background, strongly suggesting that Ross has never actually been to “Beth Shalom, Miami,” as Rosenberg claims.

Logic dictates that Ross got this idea from Drake. Drake, who brought the age of getting re-bar mitzvahed down from 73 to 25 with his “HYFR (Hell Yeah Fucking Right)” video earlier this year. Drake, who is actually Jewish. In the instant-classic music video, Drake’s re-bar mitzvah is a mixture of your typical synagogue-going crowd—and Lil’ Wayne and DJ Khaled. As Rembert Browne wrote in Grantland, the video was both ridiculous and deeply personal. Not entirely logical from the outside, it clearly felt right for Drake and the moment: “His world is a collision of cultures, so why pretend that any of them live in silos?”

Drake shows up on The Black Bar Mitzvah, but doesn’t bring any Talmud quotes with him. Instead, he’s got the most victory-lapping verse on the whole victory-lapping album; he sounds drunk and it’s terrific. “You let Drizzy get a verse, you gon’ get this worrrrk!” he slurs, like your best friend celebrating a promotion. Ross’ mixtapes have a way of bringing the out the best among those chosen to guest, and Bar Mitzvah is no exception. Rap baby Rockie Fresh steals the show with lines like “Like racism/I’ma be around,” 2 Chainz shows up because Obamacare made it illegal to have a mixtape in 2012 without him, and the whole thing runs pretty smoothly. Ross comes off as a slightly weird, very rich person who can make people feel successful just by being around them.

Basically, it feels like a normal mixtape, which makes the Jewish trappings even odder. The cover art, with a golden Ross popping out of a Star of David, feels like the end result of some historical fiction where Israel’s main export is customized 1970’s shag vans. It’s absurd—and absurdly eye-catching—which is precisely the point. It could raise questions about black-Jewish relations, but of course it doesn’t. This is a Rick Ross mixtape, and the guy who has claimed incarcerated drug dealers like Big Meech and Larry Hoover as role models isn’t exactly interested in an intercultural dialogue.

The closest historical point of reference is Jewish Mafioso Meyer Lansky, who’s been given shout outs from all-time legends Jay-Z and Raekwon. Lansky, who ran casinos in Cuba for a decade and was denied the right of return by Israel for his criminal activities, was also fictionalized as Hyman Roth in The Godfather. This would be a natural meeting point for Ross and The Jews, given how so many Maybach album covers tend to resemble the poster for Coppola’s masterpiece. Yet while the Jewish Mafia is given a namecheck on Ross’ version of Future’s “Gone to the Moon,” Lansky is nowhere to be found.

The Black Bar Mitzvah will definitely cement Ross’ place among 14-year-old Jewish private school kids looking to spend their bar mitzvah money while also wanting to be black, but that’s about it. He’s taken a stereotype once used as an excuse for vicious discrimination and presented it to be as harmless as it actually is. That we can look at an album cover like this and see nothing but the universally bizarre is without a doubt a good thing. If you’re keeping score at home, you can call this one Good for The Jews. Ross thought up at least one good tagline for The Black Bar Mitzvah, and it’s a fitting one: “Everyone’s invited.”

Previously: Watch: Drake’s HYFR Bar Mitzvah Wins Best Hip Hop Video at MTV VMAs
It’s Drake’s re-Bar Mitzvah, and You’re Invited!

From this author: Why I Gave Up God But Still Keep Kosher
The Beastie Boys Album That Changed Everything

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Jay-Z is serious about this whole Jewish street cred thing. After telling Rolling Stone he was the most powerful Jew in the music industry now that Lyor Cohen (you know, of Dior Homme) left the Warner Music Group, Hov took it a step (or eight) further for his much talked-about concert series at the Barclays Center.

Over at Fuse, Amit Wehle—who lives at 560 State Street—tells the absurdly amazing story of how he ended up providing the menorah that Jay-Z and Co. lit each of the eight nights of concerts. Get it?!

Wehle writes:

Let me pause to explain what a menorah is for those who may not know: It’s a nine-branched candelabrum lit each night during the Jewish holiday, Hanukkah. It commemorates the re-dedication of the Holy Temple some 2,200 years ago in Jerusalem. Now Jay-Z and his team wanted to light one candle for each night of their eight-concert run, held in their own Holy Temple. So, already feeling a kinship with Hova from my chance living at his old residence, I jumped at the idea.

So yeah, that happened. Dome of the ROC, anyone?

Previous: Is Jay-Z the Most Powerful Jew in the Music Industry?

(Photo by Allison Joyce/Getty Images)

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In Rolling Stone, Jeff Rosenthal spends three minutes with Jay-Z, and we’re sure glad he did. They talk about Jay-Z’s upcoming concert series—an auspicious eight (crazy) nights—at the new Barclays Center. Why eight? “My stamina. When I got to eight, I felt like I would probably fall over from exhaustion.” So did the Maccabees!

Then they talked about Jews:

Your longtime friend and coworker Lyor Cohen just stepped down as head of Warner Music Group. Does this make you the most powerful Jew left in the music industry?
Yes! [Laughs] Sammy’s gone! It’s just me!

Mazel tov, Hov. No word yet on where he stands in the Drake vs. Matisyahu Jewish-off.

(Image: Taylor Swift and Jay-Z at the 52nd Annual GRAMMY Awards on January 31, 2010 in Los Angeles, California. Credit: Larry Busacca/Getty Images for NARAS)

Three Minutes With Jay-Z [Rolling Stone] From the Archives: Matisyahu Says He’s More Jewish Than Drake, Even Without His Beard
At My Power Seder, 2011/5771
Rick Rubin Top Ten

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• Avital Chizhik, who wrote in Tablet about the politics of tights for Orthodox girls, shares a moving cross-cultural experience in the New York Times.

• Josh Radnor, front row at Fashion Week. What would Ted do?

• Is this the definitive list of the 25 best Seinfeld episodes?

• Diane von Furstenberg told the Fashion’s Night Out crowd at her store she hoped they were all Democrats.

• Adam Pally, aka Max on Happy Endings, wrote a movie that Will Ferrell is producing.

• It was bound to happen, right? Kanye raps about Israel—and Bar Refaeli four minutes into his new song, Clique:

The post Daily Jewce: Kanye West Raps About Israel, DVF Gets Political appeared first on Jewcy.

• David Samuels calls the Jay-Z and Kanye West album ‘Watch the Throne’ “the sonic equivalent of a $10 million bat mitzvah.”

• Police found Boston University Jewish fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi pledges bound and covered in honey and hot sauce in the fraternity house basement.

• Drake’s people “paid a standard rental fee for the use of the synagogue’s facilities” for his bar mitzvah-themed HYFR music video.

• Scarlett Johannson on playing the first female superhero, the Black Widow:

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