Asher Roth, 'Asleep in the Bread Aisle'

Release date: April 21, 2009
Record label: Universal Motown
Offical Web site: http://www.asherrothmusic.com/

The buzz: “I Love College,” Asher Roth's decadence-loving, parent-frightening first single, has become the ubiquitous hit of the year so far. The suburban Philly rapper's debut record, “Asleep in the Bread Aisle” is Roth's only hope of escaping dreaded one-hit wonder status.

The verdict: Shockingly, he does it, and then some, delivering a record that's similar in its surprising breadth to “The Slim Shady LP”—that stunningly original debut from one of Roth's admitted idols, Eminem. He achieves this by both embracing his rep as a party boy (if you can't guess what “Blunt Cruisin'” is about, you also have no idea why this record was released on 4/20, and you should probably stop reading here) and acknowledging his privileged upbringing (“Bad Day” contains lyrics about forgetting an iPod on the flight to a gig), while spitting wordplay so natural, you'd be hard pressed to deny he's a cunning linguist (all right, listening to the record can seem sophomoric at times). Though he's white and gifted, Roth's actually the anti-Eminem, full of the honest love rarely found in hip-hop; for proof, just check out “His Dream,” an ode to his father that's both warm and heartfelt—when was the last time you heard either of those words used to describe a rapper best known for bragging about getting underage girls naked?

Did you know? For April Fools' Day, the skinny, pale Roth released a video of him recreating shot-for-shot D'Angelo's notorious, naked “(Untitled) How Does It Feel” video.

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