Mac Miller Says He Knows Where Asher Roth Went Wrong

To let the bloggosphere tell it, Mac Miller took Asher Roth's spot.

But, though the two White Pennsylvania-bred MCs —Asher is from Morrisville and Mac is from Pittsburgh— and former XXL Freshmen have drawn comparisons for their college-friendly fanbase, carefree content and weed-head persona, their careers appear to be headed in different directions.

Two years after Asher's debut, Asleep in the Bread Aisle, released via SRC/Universal, failed to meet commercial expectations—selling 62, 000 in its first week—Mac's debut, Blue Slide Park, is projected to sell roughly 100, 000 units independently in its first week. And, according to Mac, he knows exactly where the former Great White Hope went wrong.

"Asher Roth came out with ‘I love College’ and that’s not really him as an artist," Mac told XXL. "He likes to rap his ass off. He likes to spit, and he's on some positive change the world type shit for the better, and that’s not him. They thought that would be a hit song. And I think that was the thing, like, he came out in that lane that they pushed him in and he didn’t wanna go there. He just wants to rap and shit."

Though he owns up to having similarities with Asher, Mac is confident he's in a lane of his own.

"I have some jams where you're like, ‘Hell Yeah, these are great to get high to,'" he explains.  "These songs are great to fuck a bitch to. These songs are great for you to sit by yourself and think about some shit. These songs are good for you just to hear someone rap they ass off, so for you to box me into one type of thing is like you kinda being an idiot."

Mac Miller's Blue Slide Park is in stores now. Also look for Mac in XXL's December/January issue on newsstands December 6.—Carl Chery @cchery