Okay, so I desperately wanted to hate this upcoming buzz prone rapper–or should I say “MC”–from Pennsylvania. I wanted to write him off as a Ricky J reincarnate. A frat boy with earnest charm and decent, yet awkward, bowl cut. Another suburban rapper, limited to mediocre talent, with just enough friends in college that surmised his skills enough to mindlessly go out and buy a record that illustrated their prototypical debauchery. Sounds too easy huh? Well, I couldn’t: the boy is just too f$cking good!
My animosity was not because he is white. I have nothing against race or colour in music. I grew up steadily in a healthy dose of Beastie Boys, 3rd Bass, House of Pain, and will admit that I used to break dance in my basement to Vanilla Ice and Snow records back in the day. Nor is it due to Asher’s suburban disposition. I grew up having spent some of my life in the suburbs as well; so I can relate to beer bongs and plaid shirts. For me, the media machine had struck again.
Sooner than even hearing his music on radio, the Internet, or the usual - for urban music specifically, which involved me talking with my friends who were still tapped into the hip hop wire, my “top 40” friends started asking about this Asher character. This was the first unpleasant sign. They kept saying, “Have you heard this new white rapper? He’s the next Eminem!” “That is one tall order”, I thought to myself and if they were hearing about the guy before me then this poor soul was destined to the be the next Afroman. Do you what it takes to be an Eminem, a Nas, or a Jay-Z in hip-hop? How about multi-platinum selling rec ords, street credit and acceptance, as well as enough punch lines to battle Mr. Mike Tyson? Asher being given this label deal after being signed from a Myspace page and putting out one college anthem inundated me with enough agitation to boycott the rapper - forever.
Rap is unique. It is the only genre that was built on, and still exists primary on the credibility given from a specific community: the black community. It is a lot easier these days to sell records, as “one-offs” perhaps, but career artists cannot exist without credibility; and there is no exception. It has always been harder for white rappers to gain that acceptance, but not impossible. Eminem did it brilliantly with not only outlandish wordplay and vitriolic metaphors on his first album, “Slim Shady”, but more importantly engulfing himself in the “hip hop” culture of battle raps and its DIY hustle; same can be said for the UK rapper the Streets.
Rap music comes from the bottom up, from the streets to the radio, and when it trickles backwards it can be often be detrimental to a rappers career. It is the same reason why countless corporation like Nike or Ralph Lauren bring their product down to the street level in order to make it cool: to endorse it with “credibility”.
I’ll be the first to admit that I almost missed the boat on this talented MC named Asher Roth due to the reverse trickle effect, which would have been a shame, but I wonder how many others will not be so open minded. The dude is ill–I’ll give him that–but if his goal in impressed the underground hip-hop community he has got his work cut out for him. A song like “I Love College” is just not going to cut it.
Sway
Toronto, May 2008