I had a chance to sit down with Asher Roth inside the Red Bull Studio, Los Angeles, where he was mixing up a new batch of something awesome. Maybe you only know Asher from the hit “I Love College” but I have to tell you this 24 year old is as humble as any artist I have ever seen. He approaches the hip hop industry from a completely fresh perspective, truly grateful for all he has and willing to embrace the creative process with integrity. He’s not trying to be anything he’s not, which is essentially a young man looking to have some fun. And while you are listening, he might just have something to say.

Asher says that when he got started there was always someone in his ear trying to tell him what’s good. That’s definitely a pit-fall of the music industrialists, trying to manipulate the young blood in order to fit them into a box. However, Asher was already onto the game. He’s into making music to make music. It comes from a place inside where true expression lies. And that’s right back to the beginning, the foundation of Hip Hop. The bones of rap start with the voice. You have to have something to say. The way you weave that something into a beat, into a rhythm, into a song, well that’s just style, be it white, black, Inuit, or Asian.

I have to admit that on the outside, I didn’t really have an opinion of Asher. I thought “I Love College” was a playful track that had obvious appeal for the youth today. But in a conversation with the hit-maker, audio engineer Manny Marroquin, when asked who he thought was hot right now, without hestiation he replied, “Asher Roth. That guys a true artist”. And that gigantic compliment made me take a closer look.

Surrounded by the people that he likes to be around, the guys that he calls friends, he makes his music. He’s in no hurry to jump on anyone else’s train. DJ Wreckineyez was hangin in the studio and Asher had no qualms about saying that he values his skill as a DJ. He just pulls people in, and wants them to be the best people they can be, remaining true to who they are.

I can’t say that at 24 I had such wisdom or such uncluttered direction, but I think the music industry and the rap community alike will benefit from some suburban perspective. Originally he went to college for education. Appropriately, I believe he has something to teach us all. His next full length release should be out early summer but until then, check out Asleep in the Bread Aisle.