I resisted the Asher Roth train for a really long time. I didn't listen to "I Love College", despite it being plastered everywhere for the past couple weeks. I'm not really sure why. Probably because "I Love College" sounds like just what it is - a song about drinking and smoking weed. And now that I've finally listened to it, I can safely say it's in a dead heat with "Crank That (Soulja Boy)" for least profound song I've ever heard. It's repetetive and trite.
And obviously, it's really freakin' catchy.
But that's not what I'm here to talk about. I'm here to talk about what finally got me to listen to "I Love College" - Cee Lo and Sam Cooke. I know at first a Goodie Mobster from ATL and one of the best vocalists in American history seems like an odd pairing to bring a young white dude from the Philly 'burbs to my ears, but big names attached to Asher's caught my attention. So when I caught wind of some tracks pairing the young rapper up with established musicians, I got interested.
Cee-Lo came in the picture via "Be By Myself", the sixth track on Roth's forthcoming Asleep In The Bread Aisle. He sings the hook, in his signature style, and it completely rocks the track. Asher drops some nifty rhymes on the track, and it wins me over quickly. The song has a Gnarls Barkley-ish feel, organ, drums, guitars, etc. And I love the chorus of shouts in the background, definitely adds to the jubilant feel of the track (as if Cee-Lo weren't enough).
The second song that grabbed my attention comes from B.o.B.'s latest mixtape and features verses from B.o.B., Asher Roth, and Charles Hamilton, 3 of XXL's 10 Freshmen of Hip Hop. They each drop verses over a keyed up Sam Cooke sample taken from "A Change Is Gonna Come", one of the greatest songs ever. Hamilton goes first and spits a nice verse, Asher comes on second and tears it up, and then B.o.B. calls out bloggers (cough cough) saying "Well as you're listenin' to this track, you're probably about to blog about it, and maybe say it's wack..." Hilarious. And definitely not wack. Love hearing the three of these guys on the same track - great balance and good verses from all of them.
So yeah. That's how I came to listen to some Asher Roth. I'm still not totally sold that he's more than a one trick pony, but I do think he has some talent. I feel like he's a prime candidate to follow the anti-50 Cent path: ride to the top on schmalzy hip-pop before letting loose with some really great and poignant stuff. Keep your fingers crossed. Oh, and don't compare him to Eminem, that's just dumb and irresponsible.
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