Asher Roth - Asleep In The Bread Aisle

I've noticed that with certain things I'm old school - but not too old school. Does that make sense? Well I'll explain. With rap - I still identify most with 2Pac, old Dre and Em, you know - that brand of rap. The newer stuff nowadays I still feel is mostly dance rap or party rap - stuff that isn't intended for lyrical quality but sing along quality. Which is fine, there is a market for that. Every so often an artist sneaks in like Kid Cudi or someone that impresses me as a true lyricist and hip hop artist. Follower Angie suggested that I take a look at Mr. Roth one day, and I was more than skeptical. I had only heard 'I Love College' which basically made me cringe at first. Roth was born in Pennsylvania in 1985. He says he never even heard rap until 1998 when Jay-Z dropped the 'Anything' track on Beanie Sigel's album that used the sample from 'Annie'. He had some interesting things to say about suburbs and rap - which I can very much relate to. Where I grew up, a lot of white kids enjoyed listening to rap, but were almost confused as to how to react to that. Maybe you dressed different or acted different because of this image you wanted to portray in order to be "accepted" in listening to a certain artist. Asher states he realized he didn't have to dress that way or act that way. And that he could make rap music that was geared more toward the experiences of a suburban kid. He's obviously drawn comparisons to Eminem - just because of his voice and his color. He devoted a song to it on this album called 'As I Em' and it's frankly an outstanding track. Em even endorsed Asher in XXL Magazine, stating he didn't feel he was an impostor and that he was doing his own thing. Very cool. I think I hear the 'I Love College' tracks, and I made too rash of a decision at first. While I don't really identify with that kind of song - because that's not how my college experience was, I understand others do. But if you make those kind of tracks AND the nice lyrical, beaty tracks, I'm all for it. The new game might be a combination of styles, and I have to adapt to that. Anyways, I'm not saying this album is Pac-ish or anything like that. It's simply better than I thought it'd be, which means some of you would probably think the same thing.

TRACK LISTING:
1. Lark on My Go-Kart
2. Blunt Cruisin'
3. I Love College
4. La Di Da, La
5. Be By Myself
6. She Don't Wanna Man
7. Sour Patch Kids
8. As I Em
9. Lion's Roar
10. Bad Day
11. His Dream
12. Fallin'

Listen To Samples

Top 3 Tracks:
1. As I Em
2. Lion's Roar
3. I Love College

FINAL RATING:
3.5 out of 5 stars