The fascination of white college students with hip-hop and rap is not new, but rarely has a white college graduate been able to successfully cross-over into the genre. But this is all about to change. Meet Asher Roth.
Asher Roth, a 22-year-old from Morrisville, PA, dropped his debut album Asleep in the Bread Aisle on April 20, 2009. The album's tracks have names like "Lark on my Go-Kart," "I Love College," and "Be By Myself," which features Cee-Lo. "I Love College," the album's first single, is a feel-good anthem about drinking, smoking weed, dancing, Thirsty Thursdays, and naked girls. The music is an even mix of real instruments and beats, with guitars on "I Love College" and some keyboard on "Lark" The rhymes are clever and he has a sense of humor about the whole thing, but it's clear that Asher Roth is writing about what he knows in the genre he happens to love. Less psychopath than Eminem, more coherent than the Beastie Boys, Asher Roth has what it takes to overtake his predecessors as the most commercially successful white rapper ever.
Roth's music background is alarmingly unremarkable. He says, "The first CD I ever bought was Dave Matthews Band's Crash...That is how suburban I am...I finally got into hip hop in '98 when I heard the Annie sample with Jay-Z...When I wrote my A Milli freestyle, that was me listening to 10 years of hip hop and not relating to it at all. Like, Damn I don’t sell coke. Damn, I don’t have cars or 25-inch rims. I don't have guns. I finally got to a point where I had the confidence to do this thing myself, and I was making music for me. And it turns out, a lot of people feel the same way I do."
His autobiography on MySpace invites a little more insight into the mind of Asher Roth:
"When I'm not rhyming I find time to purchase rare kindergarten art off ebay. As I was recently enlightened that it portrays the soul in its purest form. On the weekends I like to watch football and dance in celebration of the coming week. I collect business cards purely for prank phone calls and pay my rent by doing BICH Work (Boys In Cougar Homes). My boy Greg Mike and I, both started living by the credo...WWJD. What Would JEEZY Do? More often than not we find ourselves going with answers.."YEEAAHHH" and "HAHAAAA." Ever since I've been living a much more positive lifestyle."
Whatever that means. Listen to his tracks at www.myspace.com/asherroth
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