Loving College: Hip-Hop Artist Asher Roth Relives Past as Slope Day Opener

Asher Roth, suburban hip-hop artist of the Internet-sensation “I Love College,” will be the opening act at this year’s Slope Day on Friday, May 1. The Slope Day Programming Board’s executive board made an official announcement at today’s Student Assembly meeting following the leaked release yesterday that the Pussycat Dolls will be Slope Day’s headlining act.
Born in Morrisville, Pa., Roth defies many of the genre’s stereotypes. In past interviews, Roth suggested that while growing up in the suburbs, he enjoyed hip-hop but couldn’t relate to its most notable topics.
“Damn, I don’t sell coke. Damn, I don’t have cars or 25-inch rims. I don’t have guns,” Roth told Vibe Magazine in 2008.
Instead, Roth has made his career rapping about the things he knows best — his brief tenure at West Chester University presumably the inspiration for his hit single, “I Love College.” The song’s music video features Roth drinking Miller Lite, smoking weed and checking out a strip poker game at a fraternity house.
While the topics of Roth’s records veer away from those of Eminem — another famous white rapper to whom Roth has been widely compared — he has enjoyed similar success in the past year. While in college, Roth was discovered through Myspace by manager Scooter Braun and then moved to Atlanta to pursue his hip-hop career full time. Roth eventually signed a joint contract with Braun’s Schoolboy Music and SRC/Universal Records.