“It was fun when I started,” says Asher Roth. “Then I signed a record contract.” Roth is in Chicago tonight, and just finished soundcheck. In a couple hours he’ll be performing to a sold out crowd at Reggie’s Rock Club, playing alongside GLC and The Cool Kids in honor of his latest release, Pabst and Jazz. It’s a free release he put together in roughly three days working with Chicago’s Blended Babies. It’s a communal project, with features from a bevy of friends who all came through to their studio for the recording sessions. They all also came through Reggie’s, and the backstage area is feeling more like a house party. But we’re still a few hours away from all that. As the band takes down their equipment, Asher and I find a quiet space to talk about his career’s ups and downs, and how he found the fun again through Pabst and Jazz, as well as his forthcoming new album, Is This Too Orange.
Asher recently played armchair quarterback on himself, analyzing his career and relating it to the career of 49’ers quarterback, Alex Smith. He did it via a blog written for ESPN, in which he talked about being stuck in a system where he didn’t fit, having coaches that didn’t quite get him. He was caught in a weird place, riding a hit record in “I Love College”, while figuring out how to work that hit record into the rest of his music. Instead of riding that wave to dance remixes, and mega hits, Asher took a step back and went into indie-hip hop grind mode, releasing a couple free mixtapes as well as an EP with underground hero, Nottz Raw. It’s something that has endeared him to Hip Hop fans, proved that he could really spit, and something that’s helped him find the fun again.
“For the most part, I don’t regret anything,” he tells me about his career decisions. “There’s nothing. This is the path that I chose.” Asher Roth has found the fun again in music, and his own career. He seems to be in a better place than ever, and it shows. In this interview he talks with me candidly about righting the ship, making music for the fun of it, signing to Def Jam, and more. Asher Roth’s finally got his groove back.