I will be honest. Asher Roth first caught my attention because his voice had strong similarities to a legendary figure in hip hop music. These similarities come as a blessing and a curse for Roth. Listeners immediately draw biased and unfair comparisons. It doesn’t help that most radio DJs make it a point to link Asher to this other MC while introducing Asher’s music on the radio. At the end of the day, it is all a blessing for Roth because now he has hip hop’s undivided attention and he has a certain skill level that allows people to bring up any sort of comparison. As soon as I delved into the lyrics of Asher’s first debut single, any notions of similarities immediately evaporated. In fact Asher’s music is completely different than any other mainstream hip hop artist to date. He introduces himself to the world with a subject matter that is foreign to almost all hip hop artists: his appreciation of the college life. Most rappers portray grim stories of life struggles and hardships. They are lucky to have even graduated high school. Kanye West raps about the most positive topics in hip hop today and even his first album emphasized a lack of college. Asher is a hip hop minority and I think it was a bold move for him to introduce himself with a song that most of the genre find hard to relate to. It makes him different and distinguishes him from the crowd, but there is also a danger of him being alienated from the crowd. With all this weight on his shoulders, Asher Roth lights up a joint and remains focused on his music with Asleep in the Bread Aisle.
When I got the chance to play through Asleep in the Bread Aisle released on April 20, 2009, I could see that Roth’s talent for wordplay over a rhythm is undeniably apparent. One song that stands out for me is “Lion’s Roar” because the track accentuates Roth’s ability to rap with a very fast paced beat. I can hear a slight Outkast influence in the track style. Asher is able to hold his own rapping side by side with Busta Rhymes and that alone is an accomplishment. The most heartfelt song on the album is “His Dream” where Asher laments over the lost dream of a father and a promise to fulfill that dream by the son. Although the tone of his voice was a bit sluggish, the message was strong. If the other songs on the album had followed suit, then maybe Asher’s debut would have gained better reception. He could not be blamed because like any other artist he told stories about his environment and what he knew about life. Just that his life seems to consist more of partying than pain, more hallucinated fantasies than harsh realities. His idea of a bad day is forgetting his iPod and having no HBO. Plain and simple Roth’s Asleep in the Bread Aisle serves well to display his talents, but it is short of any insight to be classified as art and can easily be dismissed as a “flavor of the month” type entertainment.
After listening to the album, I browsed the internet and found some entertaining freestyle clips featuring the new MC. To my suprise the clips were quite impressive, and it is evident that Asher has been well-versed in the art of hip hop. It was no wonder that Roth was featured on the cover of XXL Magazine as one of the ten freshmen rappers emerging in 2009. Asleep in the Bread Aisle has its shortcomings, but I cannot dismiss Roth’s potential as a hip hop artist. The talent is there but the content is not quite developed. Luckily for Asher there are still many chances for him to refine his persona and practice better storytelling. Unfortunately Asher cannot stay in college forever. Everyone has to eventually move on and it is an exciting albeit nerve racking experience. The big question is what can a self-proclaimed post-college “quirky” white MC rap about next?
