Asher Roth: Asleep in the Bread Aisle

Posted by Blake the Megalomaniac (Follow Me)- Blake the Megalomaniac is a graduate of Virginia Tech and now lives the Adams Morgan section of Washington DC. - To see more posts by this author click here

As I’ve stated before, I enjoy music but would not consider myself qualified to write a technical review of any artist’s musicianship.  So simply put, this isn’t a music review; it’s a music review according to me and how I think music should be reviewed, less critically.  As with most things I bless with a review, I went into it wanting to like Asher Roth’s Asleep in the Bread Isle but I came out with the same feeling a DC United fan has when his team ends a game tied — blah.  While there are some good things to take away from a tie, there are some good things to take away from Mr. Roth’s LP and some bad.

Lets get some things out of the way though.  Asher Roth is white and that is almost where the similarities to his counterpart, Eminem, end.  Asher undeniably sounds like Eminem did in his earlier releases but their content and their struggle is terribly different.  Marshall may have opened the door for Asher but the biggest thing Asher did to pay homage to him was to differentiate himself.  Eminem is beast lyrically but his psychopathic rhymes and manufactured beefs are a far cry from Asher’s “middle-class minutiae” as it has been called.

In my view, spitting profanity and racial slurs in your rhymes is elementary.  Although it may sound more edgy and better to your ear because you’ve been conditioned to love it, throwing a “who the f*ck want what,” or some other stale line is simply filler.  That and other thoughtless throw-ins in the name of continuity and rhyme isn’t what makes a rapper skilled.  Not cussing may make a song sound cheesy but the skill of a rapper like Asher as he chooses not to lace his rhymes with them should be respected.

I’d say besides implementing a Will Smith’esque framework of rapping, Asher Roth’s Asleep in the Bread Aisle also cultivates another niche market that most of you reading can relate to although might not be interested in: Suburbia and college life.  He didn’t mature on the mean streets of 8-mile nor in the Marcy Wood projects but he does know about weed, women, Madden, and Saved by the Bell?  In Lark on my Go-Cart, Roth utters:

“…razor Ramon flow o’ so sharp
you can take a Kapowski
I’m a take Lark on my go-kart

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 blue tooth dot come
Im at the grocery store with hot moms”

There are references to Bob Saget, text messaging, and sour patch kids and even with those examples, his lyrics have more substance than anything Shwayze ever spit and at only $7.99 on Itunes, I think it’s more than worth adding it to your music database.  Be By Myself featuring Cee-Lo, Fallin Perfectionist featuring R. City and Beanie Sigel are some songs of note.  Also featured on his album are, the lovely Keri Hilson, Busta Rhymes, Chester French, Jazze Pha, and New Kingdom. Asher Roth’s Asleep in the Bread Aisle isn’t breaking any new ground here but it does give rap lovers a break from all the street life musings and conscious rap preaching out there (not that there is anything wrong with Styles P or ….wait who does conscious rap these days?).

Food for thought, udothedishes…

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1. First ever post geared towards DC United
2. Local Ish (Mother’s Day Weekend)
3. Celebrity Tweeting
4. Eminem Relapses into Mediocrity
5. In the world of rap, life imitates art

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