Ilooray
Liebe
DAVID PEISNER
Special to The Jewish. News
S
uccess often springs
from the unlikeliest of
circumstances. At least
that's what Hillel Tigay
and Andrew Todd Rosenthal are
banking on.
They started their hip-
hop/funk/rock/pop music col-
laboration, M.O.T. (which
stands for, quite appropriately,
Members of the Tribe) not to
make a lot of money or to meet
girls or even because they felt
driven by their passion, but
rather to escape the long arm of
the IRS.
"We got into this strictly as a
write-off," says Rosenthal, who
goes by the name of Ice Berg.
He and Tigay, who uses the han-
dle Dr. Dreidle, both were pro-
Ice Berg and Di: Dreidle:
fessional musicians, when, in
Boychicks the Hood.
1991, the idea for M.O.T.
began to hatch.
Rosenthal had been one-half
of the obscure '80s electronic-
pop group Martini Ranch, with
actor Bill Paxton. The group
had a contract with Sire/Warner
Bros., but lack of interest soon
saw the group fizzle out. From
there, Rosenberg went on to
chuckling, "we decided to form a
work writing musical scores for chil-
band that no one in the world would
dren's television and earned a few
ever sign. We thought this was the
Emmy nominations for his trouble.
surest way never to make a profit, and
Tigay, the son of a Conservative
to write off guitars, amplifiers, key-
rabbi who teaches at the University of
boards, computers, office space in ow.
Pennsylvania, was an Ivy league honors
houses, and a certain percentage of the
student with a serious interest in
water and electric bills.
British pop music that eventually
"We wrote a couple of songs and
helped land him a record deal with
before
we knew it, the musical com-
A&M Records. The deal soon went
munity
in L.A. was abuzz. It was like a
south, though, and Tigay's project was
snowball
that kept growing, a roller-
ditched by A&M, leaving him with a
coaster
ride
that we couldn't get off,
lot of musical equipment and nothing
and
now
here
we are.
to do with it.
What did initially begin as little
"When we realized that the taxman
more than a joke has in fact blossomed
was coming after us," Dreidle says
into something much bigger than any-
one — even their manager, Meshugge
is
a
music
writer
based
David Peisner
Knight — could have imagined.
in Atlanta.
L.A. musicians Ice Berg and Dr. Dreidle
ofM.0.T give Jewish tunes a good rap.
"
1/15
1999
84 Detroit Jewish News
doing, people start to think that
you're an especially whiny com-
munity and disregard the
important stuff. And, obviously,
there is very important stuff
that the Jewish community has
to focus on. We just hope that
they don't trivialize that by
dumping on what we do, which
is truthfully, we think, gonna
Make Jewish culture hip."
Undoubtedly, though,
M.O.T. will inherit its share of
detractors. As they paint a world
of Jewish lawyers sippin' Mogen
David and threatening to sue
police officers for giving them
parking tickets, Ice Berg and Dr.
Dreidle understand they're per-
petuating stereotypes and tread-
ing on dangerous ground.
"We're not going to go to the
back of the bus and be quiet. No
way," says Dreidle. "We're out
here with everybody else, saying,
`Look at me. You can laugh at
me. We can make fun of our-
selves and of you, and you know
what, we're witty, we're clever,
we're bright and we're part of the
American community.' "
M.O.T. admittedly straddles
the line between genuine musical
entity and novelty act, but they
usually land on the side of the
former, thanks largely in part to
the pair's considerable musical abilities.
Whereas most novelty records are con-
tent to recycle any old sounds as back-
ground music for their jokes (the late-
'80s spoof "2 Live Jews was comedians
with a drum machine," notes Dreidle)
19.99 paints a diverse musical portrait.
Hints of '60s pop music icons like
the Beatles and the Beach Boys, as well
as the harsh punk sounds of British
pioneers like the Sex Pistols, snuggle
up comfortably next to beats and sam-
ples more commonly found on albums
by gangsta-rappers such as Snoop
Doggy Dogg and Dr. Dre.
"We didn't set out to do a different
style," Ice Berg contends. "The music
often came first and suggested lyrics,
.
M.O.T.'s debut album, 19.99, is
filled with the humorous exploits of
Dr. Dreidle and Ice Berg. Taking their
inspiration from hip-hop, M.O.T. puts
a uniquely Jewish spin on their raps as
they weave tales, in Ice Berg's words,
"not about bitches and Glocks," but
rather "Manischewitz and lox."
While the album trades heavily on
Jewish cultural references and is filled
with Yiddish phrases, Dreidle contends
that it's not a record that is more for
Jews than for non-Jews.
"Obviously, it will offend certain
people," says Dreidle, "but the 'boy
who cried wolf' mentality can actually
make things worse.
"If you protest every little thing,
even good-natured stuff like what we're