This is, like, just wrong.

Much of what I know of Asher Roth comes from the private sector. But as his career expands, I now face the predicament of having to come to terms with Asher Roth, the New White Rapper. For some time now, I've been frequently updated on the happenings of his burgeoning career, but most of it floated under the radar of my giving a shit, because to me, he was just some middle class, suburban white kid from Westchester, PA. Who was trying to make a name for himself in hip-hop. Um...yeah. At least Eminem came from Detroit's ghetto.

Recently, he was part of XXL's Freshmen 10, the blossoming new artists hitting the hip-hop scene. A grassroots movement, led by his friends, formed to push his single, "I Love College", to the top of the iTunes chart. I think he made it as far as #3, fell down to #10 and has been steadily climbing up again.

The single now stands at #6 and now, New York Magazine, my personal Bible, published this article, "Asher Roth Disgusts, Impresses in Equal Measure". My God. I'm imagining scores of New York elite teenagers gathering around the Mandarin Oriental pool, chanting 'I love college!' The horror.

And with this single, Asher has successfully established his outfits for the next few months, that really obnoxious "COLLEGE" shirt. What irritates me the most about him isn't that he's white, which seems to be the main focal point for the media. It isn't his background and it isn't the stupid chorus of that really stupid song. What bothers me most is that I have heard his other material and, perhaps surprisingly, it's good.

I might even go so far as to say it's really good. "I Love College" samples John Mayer's "Waiting on the World to Change", which I immediately considered an affront to hip-hop. Then I heard a track that also sampled that song, but the lyrics were complex, inspiring and related to the original song. I just don't feel like this is a guy who's embarking on a career that's meant for him; this is a guy who is being sold to insipid college students, being marketed for what his label would like him to be. I think Asher has much more potential than I'd like to give him credit for, and more importantly, than he gives himself credit for.

But it still stands that his first single is called "I Love College" and come fucking on...Have some balls, Roth.