Next week, we’ll tackle more pressing questions like keeping Atlantis off the map, making Steve Gutenberg a star, and keeping the metric system down. But for the duration of this one, consider Passion of the Weiss, official anti-stone mason headquarters.
On Thursday and Friday, Sach and Jonathan Bradley will battle the bulge of Roth publicist e-mails that bloat my inbox. After all, only hours ago, Roth’s fleet flackses informed me that Asleep debuted at number one on iTunes, with “major retailers underestimating Asher Roth’s grass roots support from blogs and magazines in the hip-hop and indie community and are scrambling to get more copies in-stores!” I’m not surprised. The marketing muscle thrown behind our new rap philosopher-king is astonishing, as Dart artfully explains here.
My review at the Times is too short for true justice, but thankfully Ian Cohen went in “Winter Warz”-style at Pitchfork, gravity-bonging it with an appropriate, 2.4. How is anyone supposed to respect a rapper who lets the waddling late-period Larry Holmes that is Busta Bus, look like the Easton Assassin of ’82, who floored original Great White Hype, Gerry Cooney? Has an “event album” ever been as un-eventful as this one? Is it safe to conclude that Steve Rifkind is the Reverend Fred Sultan?
LA Times: Asher Roth–Asleep in the Bread Aisle Review
Download:
MP3: Asher Roth ft. Busta Rhymes-“Lion’s Roar”
MP3: Ghostface Killah-“Who’s the Champion”
