Blue Brain

One look and listen to Asher Roth and it’s easy to agree that he is not your average cookie-cutter hip-hop artist. Don’t expect Asher Roth to rhyme about guns, ghettos and brag about how rich he is. He’s just a 23 year old college kid who grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia, who admits the first album he ever bought was a Dave Matthews Band cd.

Roth finally discovered hip-hop in 1998 “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.“

Fast forward to 2009 with his first studio release “Asleep In The Bread Aisle”. So is he good? I found this album to be refreshing. Although I’d say his content and style are different than Eminem, the skill is comparable.

The album features 12 tracks, the songs I gravitated toward were the very first track (and second single) “Lark On My Go-Kart” which feels like a 3 minute freestyle, no hook just great lyrics and delivery.

“Mario kart skills are outrageous/
Play me any day and I’ll be the best racist/
Wait no erase it/ meant to say racer/
Traded in my cell phone for a new pager/
Take off your bluetooth now dot com/
I’m at the grocery store with hot moms/”

“I Love College” the first single, a good college anthem.

“La Di Da” is about the struggle to stay on the track, through all the hurdles and obstacles. Catchy hook.

“Bad Day” is pretty self explanatory track, although I’m not crazy about the hook by Jazze Pha, but the verses by Asher are classic:

“It’s already 11:20 and I’m ready to sleep/
But instead I end up sitting in the 27th seat/
An aisle seat/ fine by me/ But the guy that’s insides always trying to pee/
With a wild child behind that’s crying and keeps/
Flipping out and kicking at me while it violently screams/
So I silently plead “Oh God, please let there be a hunny sitting 27B”/
But of course a morbidly obese beast is in the seat/
That wheezes when it breathes/ dude sitting D is at least three deep/
And he keeps telling me what is wrong with his knees/
Osgood Slaughter/ just need water/ but for a bottle they charge two dollars/
and when I thought that it couldn’t be worse, I forgot my iPod.”

“His Dream” is what appears to be a tribute to his father.

“Fallin’” is great track with an old-school feel, reminiscing about his days growing up.

These are just the stand-out tracks to me. I’d say the overall album is great listen and is well worth the money. Which is something that can rarely be said about a lot of artists this day.

For more information on Asher Roth visit his official website.