I <3 College Because I'm Stupid

Asher Roth is described as one of the hip hop stars of '09 by XXL and BET--are they on crack? His new music video, "I Love College," is basically the stereotype of white prepsters, or a retake of Old School. Here is the video below:

Asher Roth: "I Love College"


In this video Roth mentions his liking of "thirsty Thursdays," beer pong, girls, and pizza. Wow, this guy is deep. It can be argued, the white boy from Morrisville, Pennsylvania is keepin' it real. Shit, for all I know, he might be just a white boy prepster.

Since the success of Eminem, the market for white rappers has steadily grown. From Paul Wall to MC Paul Barman, the types and styles have grown tremendously from say--the days of Vanilla Ice.

Thing is, who's really fooling who? Is this a growth in hip hop, where white rappers can now compete indiscriminately of their skin? Or are record labels, and black entrepreneurs (DJ Drama put Roth in the limelight)noticing a market to exploit? Even the title of this song seems hokey. The main purchasers of hip hop are young white males, and well, this song is clearly about young white males in college.

Murs, a LA rapper who is often denoted as backpack rap for his thought provoking lyrics, and consumption by white audiences, talks about the change in market demographics in his song, "And This is For":

Why wouldn't you abort me, my own people have
I feel I should have the scans white rappers have
It's sad but that's the way it is
What's the reason that my album doesn't sell like his?
And don't front like you don't why the hell that is
It's because he's white, you can relate to his face
Through the years you've been taught that Black is unsafe
Plus it's only natural for your own to be embraced


It makes you think...what's really happening? Man, I wouldn't critique this culture if I didn't love college so much.