I’m sitting across a table from a ginger rapper. A ginger rapper. Some deft digging reveals that 22-year old Pennsylvania-born hip hop sensation Asher Roth inherited this particular shade of strawberry blond from an Irish grandparent.

“When I was in college I worked in an Irish pub for two years,” he adds, “So I know all about craic... crake?” He does, clearly.

I have to wonder how an Irish-Scottish-American happened upon the smooth and shiny world of hip hop in the first place. Roth explains: “The first cassette tape I bought was Billy Joel, the first CD I bought was the Dave Matthews Band’s Crash, the first rap CD I bought was Jay-Z’s Vol. 2, the second album was Oasis What’s The Story (Morning Glory)?, third album was Rage Against The Machine Evil Empire. I went all over the place!
“Now, I listen to more non-hip hop stuff than I listen to hip hop stuff. It was just that when I went through my most vulnerable and impressionable stages of life, I was listening to mainly hip hop and it kind of moulded me.”
With word of his MCing spreading like wildfire, the Morrisville lad was granted an audience with hip hop Big Kahuna Jay-Z at which he got to spit out an impromptu freestyle.
“That happened so early on,” Roth says. “It’s just one of those stories I’ll have with me for the rest of my life.”
‘Jay’ mightn’t have given him a record deal, but as the industry buzz grew around the new threat to Eminem’s crown (a prize Roth denies he wanted) the labels came a-courting. With debut album Asleep In The Bread Aisle boasting songs about trying to score sexy dames (hit ‘She Don’t Wanna Man’), getting drunk at keg parties (bigger hit ‘I Love College’), and erm, not copying Eminem... it seems Roth makes music mostly to please his white middle-class peers. Or is he?
“I first and foremost make music for myself. If I’m not making it for myself, I’m trying to make it more or less for the younger generation. That’s not trying to make kiddy music or anything like that. It’s just that I know that when I was 12, 13, 14, 15-years old, listening to hip hop, I was hanging onto every word that these rappers were saying. I was studying these CDs. Hip hop is so real when you’re young.”
Just when you think you’ve got this guy pigeon-holed as a novelty act, he goes and says something terribly insightful like that. Then you hear Asleep In The Bread Aisle’s final track ‘Fallin’’, a daydreamy affair which samples none other than indie favourite Ben Kweller.
I pay a trip to The Academy later that evening for a snippet of this Billy Joel-inspired hip hop and whaddya know? The boy’s actually pretty good. In fact, it’s a fun, vibey gig and one of the better rap performances I’ve seen. This strawberry blonde certainly is full of surprises.

Asleep In The Bread Aisle is out now on Universal Records.