Asher Roth isn’t like other rappers.
The rising star whose debut album “Asleep in the Bread Aisle” went straight to No. 1 when it was released on iTunes last week hails from nowhere near the hood.
The 23-year-old rhymer grew up in the middle-class community of Morrisville, Pa. His hip-hop calling card is “I Love College,” an ode to higher-education hedonism born of his experiences while sort-of studying to be an elementary-school teacher at West Chester University.
That song, which Roth calls “satire at its finest,” has sold nearly a million copies since its release in January, and been streamed more than 36 million times on his MySpace page.
And there’s another thing that sets Asher Roth apart: He’s white. That would seem to stack the odds heavily against him.
“For successful white rappers in the mainstream, the reference points are Slim and none,” said Roth, who’s scheduled to perform at Lollapalooza in Grant Park this August and is appearing Tuesday night on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”
Slim Shady, a.k.a. Eminem, and the Beastie Boys paved the way for white rappers. Roth has been compared with Eminem — so much so that he rhymes about it in “As I Em,” because “it’s impossible rejecting an elephant in the room.”
In his songs, Roth goofs around about his reverse minority status. “L’chaim, that’s more like it / But what do I know? I’m just a white kid,” he rhymes in “Roth Boys,” his playful version of Jay-Z’s hit “Roc Boys.” In the music video, the rapper “with hair like a Troll doll” rides around on a bicycle, his helmet snapped on tightly.
“I really don’t take myself too seriously,” Roth said.
“This really isn’t a big deal. And a lot of people want to make it a big deal. … I’m just encouraging people to be themselves. I think it was Oscar Wilde who said, ‘Be yourself, everyone else is taken.’ And this is who I am.”
