Herbs: Asher Roth (Continued)

So I previously posted on Asher Roth in a section I called Herbs. I mentioned a possible diss track, and this weekend tossed in a "Asher Roth, What a Clown" in one of Das Racist's new songs. I've had to defend that one to a friend or two. Since graduating from college my head's been too bombarded with generally useless business stuff to articulate why I feel certain ways. Thankfully, Brandon Soderberg sheds some better light on why Asher Roth is a herb. From "Asher Roth is a Problem" (http://brandonsoderberg.blogspot.com/2008/08/asher-roth-is-problem.html) :

"Every rhyme reminds listeners of his suburban roots, his whiteness, and the gross materialism of most hip-hoppers, as if any of these ideas—that most rappers like money or that a white kid can rap—are a surprise in 2008. It’s as deep as aged dumbasses who joke about how the world’s changed because 'the best golfer’s black and the best rapper’s white.'"

"As the quote from XXL would suggest, Roth either believes or feels okay exploiting the myth that white kids are buying all the hip-hop CDs, pushing it so far as to suggest that the rap he and his fellow whiteboys buy is something they can’t "relate" to or understand, as if understanding is that superficial."

And most poignant:

"His version of "A Milli" contains ‘Intro to Peace Studies’ aphorisms like "self-centered humans are the root of all evil" and a constant reminder that the money made should go to "charity" and not to gold because "sick kids need it more than I need a necklace". It’s a contempt that occasionally stumbles into the geopolitical landscape when he invokes gas prices or something, but it’s always superficial and nowhere near as pointed as his comments to necklace-buying hip-hoppers. It’s easy for a kid from "the ‘burbs" to have such an altruistic and ideal view of how to distribute wealth, but it conveys a fundamental misunderstanding of how and why people conspicuously consume. If Roth’s comments were more intelligent and not you know, aimed only at black rappers, he’d be some kind of no-nonsense, un-PC political rapper but their muddled nature and again, how much his own whiteness pervades his raps, makes his "A Milli" sound more like the rants of an aging Dixiecrat or something."