ByronCrawford.com: From the Inbox: Is Asher Roth biting?

Never mind nappy headed hoes. The last thing Asher Roth wants is beef with Big City Philadelphia. Check my post on him for XXL from a while back. The following is an email I received that suggests Asher Roth has been biting off Big City. Ruh roh.

And you thought Rick Ross was fraudulent... but is Asher Roth biting off Big City?

Most of you remember Big City Philadelphia from his attack on hipster rappers in his "How To Rob An Industry Hipster" track a few weeks ago.

But before this, Big City Philadelphia was introduced to the internet with a rooftop freestyle that put a face to the name and earned him some notoriety - 40k plus views within a few weeks.

Asher Roth was introduced to the internet several months after Big City's popular youtube clip with a rooftop freestyle of his own, done in a very similar way.

Big City is known for his affiliation with Beanie Sigel, as can be seen in Big City's press kit, where photos show Beans and Big City rapping from prison.

Asher Roth has a very suspect clip that surfaced not too long after which, of his randomly running into Beans in Vegas where Beans states that Asher is the future (it is this writer's opinion that this was nothing more than a paid plug).

Big City is vouched for, stridently, by Beanie Sigel, in a clip that recently surfaced on youtube.

Asher Roth, very shortly after, released a track featuring Beans.

Big City recently dropped a song paying homage to Slick Rick's 'Children's Story'.

Asher, shortly thereafter, released a song featuring Rick.

Across the board, these similarities seem less coincidental and more of an adoption of ideas from Big City by Asher Roth (i.e. Asher is taking a big bite out of Big City). It is not credible that the machine behind Asher Roth had no knowledge of these Big City videos and media. If Steve Rifkind is truly in touch with hip hop and the streets, he would have thorough knowledge on this other up and coming white Philly rapper (Big City) who defies many stereotypes with his well known background, which has been buzzing in the streets of Philly for years. And if such is the case, Rifkind knowingly bit. On the other side of that coin, if Rifkind had no knowledge of Big City's presence or story, he delegitimizes himself as a credible force in hip hop, and by default, falls into the out of touch corporate suit category. Either way, something stinks here. The artistic choices Big City has made are all in concert with who he is personally. So the artist truly is the

man, and vise versa. But with Asher Roth, his image is being dictated by a marketing strategy whose elements were adopted from another artist's true story. So whomever Asher Roth truly is, we certainly now know who he's not.

The significance here is that we see an industry friendly artist taking the best elements of a street artist and falsely applying them to himself to bolster his career, and doing so by means of financial backing and resources the street rapper simply doesn't have. Of course, this is common practice in rap as it is in all genres of music. But once in a while, we all need to pull the blanket off the industry and see with our own eyes just how unauthentic and unoriginal many of these mainstream acts are - and how they are actually being developed. Major labels know they can't successfully convince the mainstream of a new street rapper or gangster rapper. So they're basically building Frankenstein hipsters composed of elements of unknown street rappers. They're creating the hipster versions of street artists they think can't possibly make it in this new judgmental, hipster driven climate.

It is, of course, ironic that Asher Roth would choose the concept "You Are You" on a track whose idea he adopted from another rapper. It is additionally ironic Asher would ever release a track with such a concept when he appears to be content with being himself, as well as being someone else, depending on which persona will reach the most fans. One day he's acting like a college kid (and everyone knows the contempt these hipster friendly collegians have for street rap, and the variety of ways they look down on it, speak sarcastically of it, and generally regard it as barbaric and cliche). The next day, he's jamming with Beanie Sigel on a song, paying homage to him, for the sole purpose of gaining some credibility from Beans' fans.

It all comes back to a theme we all see in "hipster rap" which is: adopt the appealing elements of real hip hop, while leaving the harsh realities behind. Asher Roth has the financial backing to get Beanie Sigel on a track. But he has nothing in common with Beans. It's as if the group Weezer was on a song with Beans. And there's nothing wrong with that. But you'd never pretend Weezer was the voice of hip hop. So why are we allowing the industry to pretend Asher Roth is? Asher can do a song with Slick Rick, but he could never tell a compelling story in Slick Rick fashion that could captivate a true hip hop audience. It seems we're forgetting what makes hip hop/rap different from all other forms of music. It's the striking contrast between the harsh street and the beautiful art created by it. It's the oxymoronic nature of the poetic tough guy. Asher is poetic - there's no denying that. But there's nothing tough about him the way there's something tough about a premo beat that's so street you can almost hear car horns laced in the track. Or a Beanie Sigel vocal, where the tone of his voice alone tells a story about poverty and pain. Or a Slick Rick verse that tells kids to walk the straight and narrow, because Rick has witnessed the tragedies of street life firsthand. In this sense, I use the word 'tough' to mean inspirational, hungry, emotional, and something given to us from the weathered hands of the American ghetto. It's one thing if the new voice of hip hop is white. It's another thing if this voice is both white AND soft. That is totally unacceptable. Rap can be any color, but it can't be white and soft. Wake the fuck up, people. What began as poor, black, hard music is not allowed to wind up rich, white, soft music. We all need to take a step back and reevaluate exactly what it is we are listening to.

Rooftop comparison