Asher Roth: much more than “I Love College”

Asher Roth: king of suburban hip-hop (Image used under creative commons)

If you have found yourself drunk, crunk, blazed, baked or stoned on a recent weekend night, there’s a good chance that Asher Roth’s hit “I Love College” was playing somewhere in the background. This anthemic ode to the drunken daze that many would call college life has party song written all over it. Complete with an outro full of chants of “chug, chug, chug,” and “freshman, freshman,” it just feels like the song that should be playing as you roll a tight jay or argue over the house rules for beer pong.

Unfortunately, his clichéd rhymes about partying, girls and beer aren’t too amusing unless you are drunk. “I Love College” is a novelty song with little staying power outside frat parties. The good news? “I Love College” is by far Asher Roth’s worst song. In fact, Asher is a very talented young emcee whose lyrics, rhymes and flow have awarded this scruffy-haired, suburban, white boy the respect of some big names in hip hop.

Asher Roth graced the cover of XXL Magazine last December as part of the Freshmen 10 Class of ’09 alongside other up-and-coming artists like Kid Cudi and B.O.B. Asher has gained the approval of established artists like Akon and Andre 3000 and has been even been praised by Kanye West on his blog. Right now it seems like his biggest challenge is going to be proving to people that he is not just a one hit wonder.

He will get a lot of help doing this when his debut album, Asleep in the Bread Aisle, is released on 4/20 (get it?). If enough of his fans can find their way out of their smoke filled basements to get to the record store, it should be a successful album. His first single, “Lark On My Go-Kart” already marks a huge distinction from “I Love College.”

Asher is all about keeping it real. He doesn’t try to be anything other than a skinny white kid from Pennsylvania, and he raps about what he knows. For this reason he can appeal to a whole demographic of suburban hip-hop fans that love the music but just don’t live the lifestyle. His remix of Lil Wayne’s “A Milli”, which can be heard on his myspace, turns song from stereotypical hip-hop braggadocio into a social commentary. With lines like, “A million dead, a million scarred/ A million bars ‘til you realized you took it too far,” it’s not hard to see the influence of rappers like Mos Def on his style.

It should be duly noted that Asher’s greatest achievement so far has been his mixtape with Atlanta area DJ’s Don Cannon and DJ Drama called “The Greenhouse Effect.” The mixtape can be downloaded for free from Asher’s myspace and truly displays Asher’s diversity and talent on the mic. His witty lyricism shines on tracks like “CANNON!!!” where he raps “You know the world’s gone mad when blacks wear plaid, and Mariah has married Nick Cannon.” Or on “The Lounge” where he asks, “I got a question, what’s a rapper look like? Is he tan? Is he black? White?” The mixtape is certainly worth the download.

Asher Roth is an intelligent, hilarious and down-to-earth rapper who deserves a lot more credit. In an interview on joyengine.com it’s pretty clear he is already looking to move past “I Love College” and establish himself as a true artist. “The success of ‘I Love College’ is cool and I completely understand why it’s doing what it is, but I’m very much an artist in respects of I don’t want that to be it. I really have a lot more to say.”

Asher Roth does have a lot to say and, if you aren’t too hung-over, you should definitely listen.

-Kegan