Asher Roth Loves College, Boobies, His 15 Minutes of Fame

Asher Roth is twenty-nine years old.  He is neither in college nor “only twenty-two”, as the bulk of his lyrics suggest.

However, the white hip-hop artist from suburban Philly relies almost entirely – but very successfully – on his audience’s belief in the archetypal college experienceas being the ‘best years of your life’, and that Roth is living these years – or at least that he can help you have a good time, in the spirit of the Animal House Deltas.  Enforcement of this notion is not difficult when every promotional shot features Roth surrounded by or carrying the eponymous red plastic Solo cups that citizens of higher learning almost always use – for activities ranging from drinking beer to playing beer pong to downing inaccurately poured shots of cheap vodka. 

Roth’s image is furthered, in much part, by the relative naïveté of his fan base.  When The Cubby Bear in Wrigleyville announced his replacement (with Swedish electro-twee trio Peter, Bjorn & John), at its previously scheduled free Friday night aftershow, I guessed that although Roth’s crowd at the Citi stage on Friday was white, suburban, and will probably attend a Big Ten school, the main draw is that they haven’t actually been to college yet.  The most that they know of the place is probably what their older sibling showed them on a “campus tour” that was really an awful frat party where they got really drunk for the first time.  Roth walked on stage wearing a sweaty gray tee and maroon athletic shorts – from state schools to the Ivy League, a uniform recognized as the college male’s, “I Look Good but I’ll Pretend to Not Notice” look.  Either that, or he is dressed for The Morning After.

Roth’s set was bookended by “DJ Recognize”, who looks suspiciously like Chet from The Real World: Brooklyn and spun some mediocre beats which I’m not sure should have even been played in the holy presence of Diplo, A-Trak, and the Bloody Beetroots spinning in Perry’s Tent a few hundred yards away.  Roth and his fellow onstage emcee (a lanky white guy with tousled brown hair and plastic sunglasses) opened with his debut album opener, “Lark On My Go-Kart”, an homage to playing video games and sitting on the couch doing things that boys do.  Suburban high school girls in bikini tops and cutoffs (a fashion usually reserved for occasions like the B-96 B-Bash and the annual Kappa Kappa Gamma charity car wash) nonetheless went crazy for this track, which has a filler loop sounding eerily similar to that in The Beastie Boys’ “Sure Shot”, back in The Sounds of Science days (SIGH).  Also Asher Roth is not bad-looking at all.

After some freestyling – which was decent on Roth’s part, even though DJ Recognize had the poor idea of playing, “It’s Raining Men”, which even caused the suburban bikiniites to pause in their grinding and look up, like so many of us, confused.  Roth, going in descending order through Asleep In The Bread Aisle, followed up with “Blunt Cruisin’”, which is like Kanye West’s “Get ‘Em High” for white people.  To the pleasure of much of the braces-faced and father-dragging audience, Roth employed costumed extras – which, if you’ve never seen the music video for “I Love College”, consist of animal suits and dollar store masks.  The last time I saw Asher Roth play, he didn’t use this gimmick – opting instead for an opening slot before The Pussycat Dolls (a lineup for which a university honestly paid, I SWEAR).

With all the love from his underage audience – whatever their age or socioeconomic status –  Roth is fully adept at working his crowd, whether encouraging them to sing along in the call-and-repeat track “La Di Da”, dance on stage, or shout, “Boobies!!” four or five times throughout the one-hour set.  It’s clear that Roth can’t uphold his antics forever.  His fans will grow up, attend college, probably love some aspects of it, and then, as post-grad twentysomethings, be relegated to soul-searching and/or finding a career.  Collegiate life is as fleeting as fame itself – but most of us can agree that we had a lot of fun while it lasted.

Originally published August 8, 2009 on (new-defunct) Chicago-centric online news publication The Windy Citizen.