2/5
Meet Asher Roth: that white kid who spent freshman year polishing off white Russians in his dorm and perfecting his rap-battle ‘skills’ at frat parties. In his first major-label release, Asleep In the Bread Aisle, Eminem Jr. sets out to prove (again) that a cracker in the hood’s gotta have guts ‘mdash; even if that hood’s an ADT-rigged suburbia with a basketball hoop in every cul-de-sac and a Benz in every garage. Roth can still spit with the best of ’em, but he’s easily overlooked with flimsier-than-thou material that’s ‘mdash; let’s face it ‘mdash; way less dramatic than a drive-by.
Aside from ‘I Love College’ (unfortunate frat party go-to for the next five years) and ‘As I Em’ (Roth’s soundalike response to Eminem comparisons), Roth only raps about middle-class minutiae. ‘His Dream’ examines his working-class father. ‘Bad Day’ dwells on the time Roth forgot to bring his iPod on a flight from Atlanta to New York. Seriously?
On ‘Lion’s Roar,’ Roth switches from a fourth-note rhythm to an up-tempo, double-time track. Problemo uno: It features the king of double-time, Busta Rhymes ‘mdash; who rips through the second verse and blows Roth out of the water.
Not that we didn’t expect it. Roth’s steady flow and witty one-liners ‘mdash; artfully mixed into serious tracks (‘Fallin’,’ ‘His Dream’) and bizzaro romps (‘Lark On My Go-Kart,’ ‘Blunt Cruisin”) ‘mdash; get a gold star for effort. But even if we like Asher Roth (and kind of wish he was our roommate), the supersenior’s due for graduation. For now, take his words with that grain of salt on your tequila glass; after all, ‘Time isn’t wasted when you’re getting wasted.’