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Asher Roth Hits Spring Break With Rolling Stone, Gets Naked Like D’Angelo for April Fool’s

4/1/09, 5:21 pm EST

Video: biz 3 publicity on Vimeo

When Rolling Stone hit Panama City, Florida, for mtvU’s Spring Break with rising hip-hop sensation Asher Roth earlier this month, we saw the 23-year-old MC down Miller Lites and vodka shots and get friendly with a bevvy of young ladies (enjoy a gallery of Roth’s wild Spring Break here). But the “I Love College” rapper didn’t strip down and uh, act sexy, like he does in the above video, a specially prepared April Fool’s spoof of D’Angelo’s famed “(Untitled) How Does It Feel” clip.

Roth showed off his sharp sense of humor during his time with RS, but he admits he started out rapping about some heavy topics even though he was a white kid from suburban Morrisville, Pennsylvania. “When I was younger, I was rhyming about guns. And it’s just crazy, man, ’cause that’s the influence that pop has,” Roth says. “There I was, a white kid at 16 years old, rhyming about guns. I held a gun once, by accident. It was on top of one of my ex-girlfriend’s refrigerator, her dad had it for protection. I was like, ‘Oh, shit, wow, this is much heavier than I thought it would be.’ Guns and hard drugs — that’s not part of my lifestyle. I like to just kick back and just relax.”

Roth, who is actually a spacey stoner who practices yoga and enjoys musing on politics, stumbled upon his hit record — which features the riff from Weezer’s “Say It Ain’t So” — by accident, and is well aware that the track, like the rest of his debut Asleep in the Bread Aisle (due out April 20th), doesn’t sound like the songs on the hip-hop charts. “I’m sitting there and I have this song and I’m like, ‘That party last night was awfully crazy. I wish you taped it, I danced my ass off and had this one girl completely naked.’ My friend was like, ‘Yo, that shit is killer. Keep rockin’ that shit.’ So we get in a conversation about what we loved about college. Dollar slices — all this and that. And I was like, ‘Man, I miss college.’ It just wrote itself. Honestly, probably took about 15, 20 minutes.”

For more on Roth, grab the new issue of Rolling Stone.

Rolling Stone

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Comments

THE FAT JEW | 4/1/2009, 8:25 pm EST

Someone in Roth’s camp stole this idea (the D’Angelo spoof) from me off of twitter. Scumbags.

THE FAT JEW | 4/1/2009, 8:34 pm EST

I POSTED ON TWITTER THAT I WAS GOING TO MAKE THIS VIDEO, AND SOMEONE IN ROTH’S CAMP READ MY TWEET AND BLATANTLY STOLE IT. DO NOT POST YOUR IDEAS ON THE INTERNET, PEOPLE HAVE NO SHAME.

The voice of reason | 4/1/2009, 11:23 pm EST

Hey Einstein:
If you post an “idea” on the internet, you are giving it away. This crap is not rocket science. If the record companies can’t manage to control music by bands, how do you think you can keep ownership of a random thought you had, that you decided to “twitter” for the world to see?

Also, I doubt that anyone is checking your twitter page for awesome Asher Roth video concept inspiration. Egotistical much?

(I don’t really like Asher Roth at all. Not sure why I’m bothering with this. I just found the comments by the dude about “stealing his brilliant video idea off the internet” to be pretty ridiculously dumb.)

rocknrolla1 | 4/2/2009, 1:09 am EST

hahahahah. Does no one else find this hilarious? A skinny white kid poking fun of himself with a remake of D’angelo’s video. Genius

jesus harold christ | 4/2/2009, 11:31 am EST

Are we really going to support this kid? Please stop writing about him, it’s going to make him well known by dumbass kids who will then play his date rape anthem at frat parties…he is a disgrace to the art form that used to be rap and is now just talking.

marcus | 4/2/2009, 1:51 pm EST

no one stole your idea moron…other people have done this before. Asher smart move.

PHorton | 4/6/2009, 5:22 pm EST

“I Love College” Should be an Anthem for College Dropouts

With the release of his single “I Love College”, Asher Roth has become something of a superstar. When listening to the song, it’s unbelievably disheartening that so many people consider it to be a college anthem. This is because Roth is a college dropout. During his sophomore year, he left school to sign a record contract. With lines in the song like, “I wanna go to college for the rest of my life” and “Do I really have to graduate or can I just stay here for the rest of my life?”, Roth obviously doesn’t care about honesty in his music. He has been widely accepted by people in the record industry, obviously because they see a cash cow in him. This song seems to be widely marketed to the rich suburban kids who see college as nothing more than a 24/7 party, the same people who are like Roth, and much more likely to drop out. While partying is definitely a part of college life, the people who glorify themselves in it are the ones who for the most part don’t make it to graduation.

So far, Roth has been a one hit wonder, with his one hit being completely based on a lie. People who choose to leave college don’t love it, and they don’t want to go to college for the rest of their life. By claiming to love college and wanting to be there forever, Roth has sold out every college student who works their ass off for a better life. Being a rich, suburban kid from outside Philadelphia, Roth doesn’t sound like he has ever had to struggle for anything. He obviously felt no pressure to make anything for himself, except to drink, smoke weed and get laid. While there’s no denying that those things are often a part of college life, most people don’t give a shit about anyone like Roth who mindlessly rambles about them. Roth could talk about partying in a more creative way, but he is completely empty-headed about it. With brilliant lines like, “Time isn’t wasted, when your getting wasted”, It’s hard to understand why anyone has any respect for him. His music is stupid for the sake of stupid.

Since he has made it big, Roth has claimed that his biggest goal is to gain universal acceptance from mainstream hip-hop. It seems like he has gained it, especially from people like Ludacris, Jay-Z, and Akon. This is without a doubt false acceptance. Roth, like so many suburban kids, grew up listening to rap. He is now the first suburban kid to have a major rap hit. The suburbs now have a rapper whom they can identify with. Since the record company has been selling millions of hip-hop records that don’t relate to suburban life at all to suburban kids, Roth represents something that could fill lots of record company pockets. Roth is popular because he is a marketing dream.

It’s impossible to deny certain things about Roth. He definitely represents a certain portion of the population. Even though many of them are lazy, spoiled, and free from the need to struggle for anything, Roth does a great job representing suburban kids. People born with a silver spoon in their mouths don’t really need to think about much of anything, even if they go to college. Roth is the perfect example of this mindset.

Despite everything that’s been said, Roth would have some redeeming qualities if he made one small change to his music. Instead of calling his song “I Love College”, Roth should have titled it “I Dropped out of College”. I don’t know why it didn’t go that way. Maybe the people at the record label thought “I Love College” was more profitable. Maybe Roth was scared that he would be ripping off Kanye West’s “The College Dropout” album. Maybe Roth doesn’t care that his music lacks any level of honesty. He definitely doesn’t care about encouraging people to go to college who obviously have no business being there, because he is one of those people. In other pieces of work he has done, Roth preaches unselfishness and doing something to help the poor. Maybe he should follow his own advice by not encouraging his fellow suburban alcoholics to waste money getting an education they will never complete. If he were true to his word, he would leave room in college for people that want to do something with their lives.

For whatever reason, Roth is lying to himself, and all of his fans about what he is: a college dropout. Music, especially hip hop, is about embracing what you are. Until he decides to be true to himself, Asher Roth will never be legitimate. He will always be the guy who dropped out of college to make money off a song called “I Love College”.

stacey | 4/8/2009, 2:53 pm EST

you guys are ridiculous…asher isn’t a college drop out because he partied too much or is a selfish suburban kid who didn’t need to waste time on education he had a better offer for him in atlanta which seems to be working well for him since his album hasn’t even dropped yet…and he is already known nation wide.I know asher from high school and he’s an awesome and very talented person…stop being mad that he found success all the while being a “college drop out” maybe you need to drink, smoke, and get laid you sound just a tad uptight.

PHorton | 4/8/2009, 5:12 pm EST

Stacey I’m not mad that he found success I’m mad that his only hit is all based on a lie. I guess I just like honesty in music too much. Why does he say he wants to be in college for the rest of his life when he obviously doesn’t? He should just say he’s a college dropout and quit pretending he wants to be there. BTW I could drink you or any idiot who loves this guy’s music under the table!

I love Phorton....not | 4/8/2009, 7:20 pm EST

holy crap man get a life.. obviously the kid had a good time during his time at collage and made a song about it that happened to be a big hit… nothing more… wait to get personal and make yourself look like a huge idiot…asher is one of the most talented Mcs i have ever heard in my life, not needing to rap about “hood” things instead rhyming about things like mario cart and random things like that… listen to his mixtapes idiot

Daboy Tommy | 4/13/2009, 5:47 pm EST

PHorton is right on what he says. Asher Roth is the first white middle class popular rapper. Now indeed many white kids, who love hip hop get someone to identify with. This indeed makes him a great marketing product. But he is also very talentend kid. I heard his CD and he’s far from a one hit wonder…

Glory_Road | 4/19/2009, 1:35 am EST

Wow asher drop out of college he sounds just like eminem and he took the john brown suburb image. And if my memory serves me right i do believe john brown was the first rapper representing us kids from the burbs to be in rolling stone.(more then once)It sounds to me like this kid is a big lie and he talks about how he doest care about the money when obviously he doing this for the money. If its not for the money asher give a tour with free shows and give free merch. I now fully believe he a FRAUD. Im rollin with john brown the first king of the burbs atleast he represents us and keeps it “real” hallelujah holla back

Truf Jones | 4/22/2009, 9:05 pm EST

This is the soundtrack to date rape. Boycott his label!

lol. | 6/19/2009, 2:19 pm EST

Lawlz

catherine | 10/25/2009, 4:39 pm EST

Honestly, have any of you haters ever actually taken the time to listen to his music? I Love College isn’t even a very serious song, didn’t even mean for the label to find it. Stop taking the damn song so literal. And for those of you hating on him for saying “I wanna go to college for the rest of my life” and how he’s a “liar”… Seriously? Maybe he does want to go to college for the rest of his life, but in reality who can really do that? Why would he turn down an amazing opportunity to stay in college forever when that can never actually happen? You guys need to get real.

“this kid is a big lie and he talks about how he doest care about the money when obviously he doing this for the money. If its not for the money asher give a tour with free shows and give free merch. I now fully believe he a FRAUD”
Haha all I can do is laugh at this statement. I mean, come on, you’re saying that because he doesn’t do free shows and give free merch means the only thing that matters to him in this music industry is money? Sooo not true.

Maybe you guys should open up your mind a little bit and educate your selves before trashing him like this.

I’m not saying it’s wrong you guys don’t like him, but it is completely obvious you guys are judging him off of “I Love College” and that’s just stupid. Get outta here

Asher wants people to be his friend, not his fan and how many rap artist can you say that about?

Basically Asher’s music is just positive, fun, and songs that will make you feel good. So quit hating.

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