Asher Roth

The easy way out is to say that Pennsylvania MC Asher Roth sounds like Eminem. The truth is, on his 2008 debut Internet mix-tape, The Greenhouse Effect: Volume 1, Roth emerges as a clever and pop culture-savvy wordsmith who foregoes cramming 4,000 syllables into four beats in favor of a mellow, De La Soul-like cadence. His Weezer-sampling, frat-pandering future smash “I Love College”—the first single off a debut full-length called Asleep In The Bread Aisle—is no “Ode To Joy,” but it launched a decently stable career ultimately resulting in his recent signing to the totally legit Def Jam Records. The label will release his second full-length, the cameo-laden Is This Too Orange?, sometime in 2012.

Updated 12/06/2011