Will I set off a firestorm if I say that Asher Roth is the future of rap music? He isn't the only hope for it, but he figures to be in the center of whatever it will become in the next five years. Along with Asher Roth I see Kid Cudi, Mickey Factz, Tanya Morgan and Esso as part of the younger generation that will take charge of the mic by 2012.

If you had asked me who half of these cats are six months ago I wouldn't have had a clue, but thanks to XXL magazine and the New Music Cartel I now have an idea who these dudes are. The internets have helped me preview some of these artists projects long before the people who only use the radio or MTV to bring them new content. Some of it has been quite good too. After previewing the Asher Roth CD 'Asleep In The Bread Aisle' a couple of weeks ago I am ready to go on a limb and say that his debut album will be a success.

Asher Roth is capitalizing on the fastest growing sub-genre in rap music - Frat Boy Rap. I would call KanYe West the top of the pyramid right now for Frat Boy Rap. His first three albums with themes of college trials and tribulations catapulted him to the top. KanYe's pretoge Kid Cudi falls squarely into Frat Boy Rap although some of you may want to call his type of music stoner rap. What do you think the number one pastime of the majority of college age kids is? I'd put the Roots crew into the Frat Boy Rap category as well although that has more to do with their audience than anything else since Black Thought spits way too hard to be placed into a box.

This makes me want to look at some the sub-genres for rap music...

Fat Rap - Artists like the Fat Boys opened doors that Notorious B.I.G. and Big Pun had no trouble fitting through (just not at the same time)

Backpack Rap - BlackMoon made us all want to wear the Jansport over the Helly Hansen and the 40 Below Tims on our feet.

tRap formerly known as Crack Rap - What Kool G Rap hath created Rick Ro$$ hath cartooned. True story: no one who ever really sold drugs has made any music worth listening to.

For the purpose of moving this drop along I am omitting the discussion of sub-genres like Snap Rap, Snitch Rap, Bitch Rap and Batty Boy Rap. Those of you interested in these should use teh Googles.

So with Asher Roth being the next up to issue an album from the Frat Boy Rap grouping I thought we could take a look back on my documentation of his career through video...

Who the Eff Is Asher Roth?!?

In Search Of... Asher Roth

Those videos were fun to make but we never had the chance to chop it up with Asher Roth and get some quotables from the man itself. Don't get it twisted XXL family, we aren't done yet. The final video in this series will be titled 'Finding Asher Roth' where we finally meet the phenomenon of the Michael Phelps bong and beer pong champ eon.

Man, I love college.

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