Putting aside the intricate cadence for a moment, 23-year old emcee Asher Roth succinctly sums up his raison d'etre with the above lines.  While so many rappers are delivering tired rhymes to back up their fake back stories, Asher Roth has quickly emerged as the future: a hip-hop anomaly grounded enough to take pride in his suburban roots but confident and talented enough to have already earned the respect of rap royalty such as 50 Cent, Ludacris, Akon, and Andre 3000.

There will be those who will see the gifted emcee and immediately stereotype Roth as another white kid from the suburbs trying to rap.  These are people that have obviously never heard the kid spit. Roth won't tell you about life on the streets (you've heard that a million times), but he will give astute and singular observations on everything from politics to partying to his unique position in the hip-hop game. With Roth, one hears a genuine student of hip-hop; an artist deftly able to weave complex rhymes and patterns that urge repeated listens.

2008 has proven to be a watershed year for Asher Roth, who released his first mixtape, the DJ Drama and Don Cannon co-signed The Greenhouse Effect (the first Gangsta Grillz tape to feature a white emcee) and performed a series of sold-out shows (ranging from intimate sets to raucous, show-stopping performances). Forget skin color. Forget the suburbs. It's the quality of Roth's live shows that really separates him from his peers. Whether it's selling out a packed-to-the-gills SOBs in New York or rhyming to 9,000 students at the University of Colorado (breaking a university attendance record), Roth is injecting what's been missing in hip-hop for a long time: fun. "My vision is to put on the dopest live show possible," says Roth. "Let's make it like Woodstock. Let's have people doing hard drugs rolling around in the mud."  To this end, Roth employs a live instrumentation to accurately convey and expand on his ever-growing catalog.

With his debut album, Asleep in the Bread Aisle, slated for release on April 20th, Roth blows away any false cries of gimmickry or novelty. His first single, "I Love College" is already one of the fastest growing songs in America, breaking into the top ten on iTunes within just 5 weeks of its release. With Roth, hip-hop has an emcee that balances the fun and simple with the serious and complex. An emcee who freestyles better than most emcees' write.  And most importantly, an emcee with the knowledge and excitement to connect to any hip-hop lover and to realize true hip hop is being true to one's self.  The "Roth Boys" in the building tonight.