It was inevitable that when Asher Roth came out he would face the Eminem comparisons. Not unlike Em faced the Vanilla Ice comparisons a decade or so ago. For some reason, there is a need to connect all white boys in hip-hop as carriers of the same torch, so Asher is constantly forced to acknowledge the parallels. As he says in his new track “As I Em”: “It’s impossible rejecting an elephant in the room.”

He addresses said elephant by spitting, “Because we have the same complexion and similar voice inflection / It’s easy to see the pieces and reach for that connection.” It’s true that their voices have similarities, but Em’s revved-up manic delivery is clearly different from Asher’s laid-back couplets.

An even bigger difference lies in their subject matter. As Steve Berman notes on the Marshal Mather’s LP, Eminem raps about “Homosexuals and Vicadin.” Asher, on the other hand, is more prone to conversationally riff on smoking blunts and bedding MILFs.

The whole song is dope, but check out this snippet that just leaked today. “As I Em” is produced by new-comers Oren Yoel and David Appleton, and is on Asher’s forthcoming album Asleep in the Bread Aisle dropping on 4/20.

-Lukas Brekke-Miesner

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