Asher Roth: Confessions From Hip-Hop’s Coolest Uncle

To those who know him solely from “I Love College” — his platinum-selling party anthem from 2009 — you may find this sequence untimely. After all, Thanksgiving Eve is notoriously the biggest party of the year. Yet to friends, and those who have followed his career, this is Asher Roth — an artist painted by a brush that was far too thin.

Now 32 years old, Roth is, by all means, a living, breathing 32-year old — just one that gets paid to make rap music. He plays fantasy football, gobbles up Ozark and Mindhunter on Netflix, and as told on his penultimate release, “Terry,” is slightly miffed with his workplace.

“I’ve heard it a million times, like, ‘if you do these three (pop) songs, the rest of the album will be yours’,” he confesses. “And, yeah, ‘I feel you, but those are the songs everyone is gonna hear, so that’s where the fans will come from’.”

Instead, Roth is doing exactly what every 25–40-year-old wishes, and where the every-man comparisons get muddied. He’s broken free of the major-label shackles, now doing whatever he pleases with no boss or superior in sight.

“I need some reassurance that this industry is worth it ’cause the inner me is nervous that this energy ain’t workin’…” -Asher Roth on “Terry”

Thanksgiving comes and goes, and Roth does the same. Although he’ll eventually work his way down the West Coast on a self-guided tour, he hits the 110th Annual Apple Cup in Seattle just a few days after the holiday — a first-world benefit that’s become more routine than hobby.

“[I’m] always hitting up live sports when traveling. We drove to Ohio for a show and hit PNC Park (in Pittsburgh, PA) and the Pro Football Hall of Fame (in Canton, OH). Same thing with Maine; we stopped in Boston for a Red Sox game at Fenway Park.”

Sports are, after all, a part of who Asher Roth is: “The only reason I even started rapping was because I got cut from the baseball team,” he explained on his web-series, Rap Life — another project that encapsulates his no-label freedoms. “It was a very real reality that I wasn’t going to be a professional baseball player.”

Growing up 20 minutes outside of Philadelphia in Morrisville, PA, a town rich with baseball history and winners of the 1955 Little League World Series, sports were passed down to Roth Field of Dreams-style.

“I remember me and my pops would like, pull out the newspaper and circle the helmets in the sports section for who we thought would win,” he recalled. “That still holds weight today.”

It’s worth noting here that Roth, currently a Philadelphia resident, is bonkers for the 49ers — not his hometown Eagles. His father, “a Stanford guy,” put him “on the 49ers and Giants early” and he’s ran with it. At one point, even his Twitter avatar repped the Bay Area, complete with a red and white, №15 Michael Crabtree jersey.

“Man, I know where I was for ‘The Catch II’,” he remembers, in between thoughts on the Flyers and 76ers — the two Philly teams he rides for exclusively. “I was at some restaurant in New York and refused to sit down at the table — I had to watch that game.”

“I’m still good in the hood (with Eagles’ fans), though. We both suffered through a Chip Kelly era,” he added.

Always socially conscious, this thought on the Eagles brings out the thinker in Asher Roth — the side that researches Neuromelanin, went to college to be a teacher, and as a complete unknown, rhymed his uplifting “Just Listen” verse for Q-Tip and Jermaine Dupri in a pseudo-tryout.

“Sports are unifying. Like with the Astros this year and everything they went through. At the end of the day, even if they don’t mean a lot, it’s healthy that by the time Sunday comes around you can share a lager with your friends, watch your squad and not think about all the craziness in the world.”

“It’s a tough balance for me sometimes, balancing sports with the art and rap world,” he adds. “But, I love sports.”

He doesn’t hide his passion for sports on his records, either. Pick an Asher Roth song from his catalog and you’ll likely find references to playing sports — “I still play tennis and wiffle ball,” he says proudly — or obscure sports figures — “My personal favorite is Mark Lemke from Seared Foie Gras With Quince and Cranberry,” he admits. Sometimes, he tells me, these subtle name-drops make for cool conversations after they’re released.

“I’m good in the McCaffrey household,” Asher beams, referring to the time Luke and Christian McCaffrey acknowledged a shout-out of their father, Ed. “It’s super cool that Ed McCaffrey (former Denver Broncos receiver) knows he was in a rap song.”

“So Ed McCaffrey’s prob’ my favorite athlete,
He or Marcus Allen, yo that running back was nasty…” -Asher Roth on “I’m Eddy”

The Apple Cup wound up being a blowout, with the Huskies beating State by 27 points, but it was more about the experience for Roth. It’s clear by now that this is his modus operandi — pile up as many cool experiences as possible and like any good writer should, use them for color in his work.

After the game, he bopped over to a concert featuring Buddy — a rapper he’s worked with on “Sayin’ Whatever” and “Rap Hands” — followed by stops all along the coast. Every time he’d stop in a city and post on Twitter or Instagram, you’d see his comment section explode — some wanting to hook-up, some wanting songs. Regardless of what his fans crave, it’s apparent that the easy-going rapper still resonates, and of course, the songs will come along like always.

Roth currently has a new project in the pipeline with famed Miley Cyrus producer Oren Yoel. Described as “alternative pop” and “experimental,” the two longtime collaborators are calling themselves Tofer Dolan and recently released their first track on December 22nd — “Electric Heart.” The song, which sees Roth trading in his bars for a perfect falsetto pitch, has already made waves in the pop world and was added to Spotify’s “Pop Rising” playlist within hours of its release.

It’s hard to predict where the rest of the album will go, but judging from the feedback on “Heart,” it could garner critical acclaim and commercial success.

One thing you definitely won’t hear (and have never heard) in Asher’s upcoming releases are references to pill-popping or consuming opiates— a topic that hits close to home for Roth, literally.

“Pennsylvania just got crushed with the opiate epidemic,” he says emotionally. “You see these rappers talking about it, and kids think it’s cool, or OK.”

Known as someone who dabbles in marijuana himself, the opiate conversation is a jumping off point to the work he currently wants to pursue in the medical marijuana field.

“Marijuana is demonized, but CBD and CBDA, not so much THC, need to be communicated as options,” he educates. “Like, why make life harder than it already is?”

While “I Love College” promotes a message that doesn’t really align with his current views, he sees it as a journal entry from a time when priorities were different. It was a “one-time thing” he tells me, in reference to the song, although he admits his college years were a “beautiful time.” He’d eventually pass on surefire hits to avoid being type-cast, with “Young, Wild, & Free” — Wiz Khalifa’s chart-friendly track from 2011 — sticking out among others.

“It goes back to how wack the music business is sometimes,” he says. “They want you to do these ‘no-brainers’ all the time…I’ve definitely gone the scenic route, but it’s my commitment to education and my passion for music, like the power of it, that’s allowed me to stick it out.”

Stick it out he will, and his fans, always loyal, will continue to vibe out. Those in the Roth camp waiting for more classic hip-hop, you can rest easy. Towards the end of our conversation, he hinted at a project down the road that resembles the collective effort of Pabst & Jazz — his biggest critical success, which, as he says, “only took like four days to make.”

“I’m in a place now where I can make legitimate moves with people I really trust,” he tells me. “Recently, I’ve been doing a lot of writing for other artists, just to give me more stability. And I’d really like to do another jazz-based album with like, all the homies on there.”

In the meantime, Asher Roth will continue to keep it authentic, educate through music, and expand on his brand in the most non-sellout way possible. Whatever route he takes next, and with whomever he does it, you can be sure that it was his call…and that the 49ers’ game will be on in the background.

Visit RetroHash for all of Asher’s merch, tunes, and videos.

Also, Asher recently recorded a podcast with Matt D’Avella, creator of the Netflix documentary Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things. Check it out below, it’s truly a must-listen episode.

You can follow Slackie Brown on Twitter @SlackieBrown or Casey Pazzalia @CaseyP_Sports