At one point in my life I attempted to make a documentary on wiggers, which endlessly fascinated me at that point in time. The most fascinating part of this whole process was a segment i was trying to put together where I looked into their CD collections or Winamp playlist of about 18 of my subjects. Without fail, and I mean without fail, Tupac, Bone Thugs and Harmony, and Three Six Mafia (I have enjoyed all of these artist at some time, but still) showed up in all the cases. Some of the more sophisticated subjects had Eightball & MJG, Outkast, or Wu-Tang, but most focused their attentions on the worst of the worst stereotypes about blacks you could imagine. It fascinated me even more because alternatives to these artists existed in that time that could mirror the subjects overwhelming suburban upbringing. This is around the time when Def Jux, Anticon, and Rhymesayers were at the height of their cultural impact. I didn't think the interest in hip hop or even approximating hip hop fashion, speech, or mores was wrong: I merely wondered were they thought they fit in the hip hop world.

This is what make Asher Roth so interesting. He doesn't seem to bother with any of the trappings of hip hop but he absolutely rips the mike. Roth deals with the music like Obama only deals with issues, ignoring everything else that doesn't matter. The kid did get a major cosign in Baraka O'Drama and Cannon, but it just continues The Aphilliates tradition of loving hip hop no matter the region or style. Roth even calls himself the king of the burbs, which we can only hope incites a new rivalry with the still unskilled, but somehow entertaining John Brown.

The point is that Asher is not a wigger, but a damn good MC and student of hip hop. Pick up the mixtape Greenhouse Effect here and peep game on where hip hop is headed.