| Asher Roth/The Greenhouse Effect a.k.a.The Greatest Mixtape Ever |
| Written by Ed Whatley |
| Wednesday, 22 April 2009 13:43 |
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VIDEO
Family Guy
 Asher Roth is the latest flavour of post-Kanye rapper. Not exactly conscious but not without a conscience, and almost certainly seen more killings on HBO box sets than on any slingin’ corner. No shortage of ego (“Yes son, you should be worried/Actor, I’m rap’s Bill Murray” – big claim – have you seen Groundhog Day?), no shortage of friends (the mixtape is presented by southern rap mixtape doyens DJ Drama and Don Cannon) and no shortage of lines (“You know the world’s gone mad when blacks wear plaid and Maria has married Nick Cannon”). He’s currently floating about the top 40 with his one hit wacky wonder/ticket to the big time I Love College. He could only be releasing this record now, in an American music scene which seems to be constantly folding in on itself via the internet, where everything is leaked MP3s, PR-driven drama for an oscillating landscape of quasi-celebs twittering and jibbering their way from party to studio to photoshoot to blog, upload, repeat ad nauseum. US rap beefs are now played out not with rhymes but with cringey YouTube insult posts from men who 10 years ago were ostensibly selling raw and pimping whores. So, faced with the empty pointlessness of still engaging with the gangsta drivel lexicon from men as ensconsed in the blog/star system as the last generation of big rappers, the new breed’s show is about... nothing. Asher likes fit girls. Asher talks about “what does a rapper look like?” (an argument someone surely put to bed in the last 30 years – whatever it wants to). How he likes sex with fit girls. That he has a good side and a bad side. That religions are a bit silly, and maybe we ought to smoke weed instead. It’s not good enough. Using a format or art form that is populated with bad and juvenile ideas doesn’t mean you’re up to scratch just because you’re slightly smarter than most of the people doing it. You need a team of smart kids writing lines to sustain this sort of scattergun parody of modern modes and mores – Family Guy or 30 Rock. One nice blond boy with a half-decent flow doesn’t cut it. Maybe he’s saving it up for his real album? Apropos of nowt
Video
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