Rising to the occasion

TOAST OF THE TOWN Asher Roth steers his go-kart into the fast lane with Asleep in the Bread Aisle.

Photograph: Hannibal Matthews

A hit record can be a dangerous thing. Take “I Love College,” the suddenly ubiquitous lead-off single from Asleep in the Bread Aisle, the forthcoming major-label debut CD by rapper Asher Roth. Given its laid-back beat and loopy lyrics about living the high life as an undergrad, there’s probably no way the record wouldn’t be huge. So huge, in fact, that Roth runs the genuine risk of being typecast for a novelty hit.

“When I wrote that song, I was like, ‘This is great, I miss college, I wish I could have that kind of irresponsible lifestyle my whole life,’” Roth, 23, says on a call from Los Angeles, where he’s chilling before heading out on his first major tour. “Then it went up on MySpace, and it had a snowball effect. You start to understand that when you step out the door, that’s how people are going to perceive you for the rest of your life. It’s not a bad thing at all, that whole laissez-faire attitude—I totally have that about life. And with all the agony and craziness going on in the world right now, to have a celebratory song that just focused on the simplicities of life was perfect.”

Ironically or not, it was the lure of a burgeoning hip-hop career that caused Roth to drop out of Westchester University in Pennsylvania, where he had been pursuing a degree in elementary education. An all-night conversation with hip-hop executive Scooter Braun, who came across Roth’s work on MySpace, led to a temporary relocation to Atlanta, a record deal with the Schoolboy/Loud/SRC/Universal label (after a non-starter with Jay-Z) and a hugely popular mixtape, The Greenhouse Effect, produced by Don Cannon and DJ Drama.

“He had lyrical content, he had wordplay,” Drama says about his decision to lend the substantial street credibility of his Gangsta Grillz imprint to Roth’s fledgling effort. “All those things matter to me to want to work with a kid or give him my cosign. Some of the best artists we have in music are those who are very personable and aren’t afraid to let you know them, during the good times or the bad times. Asher’s one of those artists who’s going to give us that, and he’s true to himself.”

Roth’s witty wordplay, sharp freestyle skills and, yes, his lack of pigmentation guaranteed immediate comparisons to Eminem, both for better and for worse. “It comes with the territory,” Drama notes of the comparisons. “But based on those things, Asher is getting a lot of looks that other up-and-coming artists may not. It’s a gift and a curse, and clearly he’s not afraid to address it.”

In fact, on Asleep in the Bread Aisle Roth tackles the issue straight up with the insidiously hooky, autobiographical “Take Me as I Em,” made with pop duo Chester French. “There is some Highlander rule for white rappers: There can only be one,” he says. “And I’m like, ‘Yo, there’s absolutely room for white hip-hop artists; they just have to be legit.’ They should be doing something for the culture, and not just trying to make money off of it.”

Beyond defusing debate, Roth also set out to prove that he was capable of creating a solid album rather than spending money on packaged tracks to spit on. In producer Oren Yoel, whose work Roth discovered on a friend’s computer, the young rapper found a creative soulmate. The disc includes cameos by Gnarls Barkley’s Cee-Lo Green (on the just-leaked second single, “Be By Myself”), Keri Hilson and Busta Rhymes. But the emphasis is firmly on Roth, whose autobiographical lyrics are complemented with tracks that reflect his youthful tastes for classic rock, jazz and Motown.

That stylistic diversity, paired with Roth’s effortless flow on tracks like the fuzzed-out twister “Lark on My Go-Kart,” ought to help him break away from novelty-hit pigeonholing. “I need people to understand that there’s so much more than ‘I Love College,’?” he says. “I mean, if I would have been in college for four years, I would have definitely been, ‘I hate college—get me the hell out of here!’?”

Asleep in the Bread Aisle is out Mon 20. Asher Roth plays Gramercy Theater Tue 21.

Buy Asleep in the Bread Aisle on Amazon.com

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