Asher Roth

The idea of a skinny, red-headed middle-class, white kid rapping about how much he loves college may sound like a bad comedy sketch, but Asher Roth steadily established himself as a young hip hop voice for a new demographic. Shaking off snipes about Vanilla Ice and Eminem, Roth has taken rap music to the white suburbs, frat houses and rock crowds with self-mocking, sharp-tongued lyrics that talk more about smoking and WWE wrestling than they do about ghetto life. Having built a solid reputation through a number of mix-tapes, first single I Love College quickly became a hard-drinking anthem across American campuses, reaching Number 12 in the US and making the UK Top 30. Helped by contributions from Busta Rhymes, Cee-Lo and Keri Hilson, debut album Asleep In The Bread Aisle (2009) followed and peaked at Number 5, before Roth joined the Blink-182 reunion tour as a support act.