Asleep in the Bread Aisle

Asleep in the Bread Aisle
Studio album by Asher Roth
Released	April 20, 2009
Recorded	2008–2009
Genre	Alternative hip hop
Length	59:43
Label	Schoolboy/SRC/Universal Motown
Producer	Scooter Braun (exec.), Oren Yoel, David Appleton, Don Cannon, Nottz, Ben Allen, Novel, Mike Caren

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]
Blender	[2]
The Boston Globe	(favorable) [3]
The Guardian	[4]
HipHopDX	[5]
RapReviews	7.5/10 [6]
Rolling Stone	[7]
Vibe	[8]
XXL	(XL) [9]
PopMatters	[10]

Asleep in the Bread Aisle is the debut studio album by American rapper Asher Roth. It was released on April 20, 2009.^[11] The album's first single was "I Love College".^[12] The second single was "Be By Myself" and the third "She Don't Wanna Man." On Asleep in the Bread Aisle, known producers like Don Cannon contribute, but newcomer Oren Yoel crafted the bulk of the album's beats. The album features guest appearances from Cee-Lo, Jazze Pha, Keri Hilson, Busta Rhymes, pop duo Chester French, and band New Kingdom from Los Angeles.^[13] Jazze Pha was recording downstairs in the same studio, went upstairs to check things out and ended up providing some vocals for "Bad Day." ^[14] The album carries a PA label but there is no actual Parental Advisory sticker on the album cover. Instead, the PA warning is hand-drawn over the cover like the rest of the text. The cover image was inspired by a story Roth heard about a guy who fell asleep in the bread aisle of a grocery store after taking Tylenol PM.

Contents 1 Commercial Performance 2 Critical reception 3 Track listing 4 Chart positions 5 Samples 6 References 7 External links

Commercial Performance

The album debuted at number 5 on the Billboard 200 chart with nearly 65,000 copies sold in its first week.^[15] As of November 22, 2011, the album has sold 205,000 copies in the US.^[16]

Critical reception

Reviews of Asleep in the Bread Aisle were mixed.^[17] According to Billboard, Oren Yoel's "mixture of boom-bap drums and pop sensibility mixes well with Roth's happy go lucky and sincere rhymes".^[12] Rolling Stone similarly complimented Roth for his sincerity and avoiding the cliche gimmicks typically employed by fellow white rappers, saying, "Roth's tight, witty debut lives up to the Internet hype that has swirled around him for months... he keeps the nerd-boy self-deprecation to a minimum and acts, you know, like a rapper."^[18] However, Allmusic noted, "Smoking weed, having sex, and swearing is hardly riveting material, and when Asher can't turn these topics into something clever, it becomes tiresome."^[19] HipHopDX agreed saying, "...Roth makes partying sound like the most boring thing in the world. It’s not that having fun in college is not worthy of being rapped about, it’s that Roth seems absolutely incapable of approaching this topic with anything remotely close to creativity or humor."^[20] Alan Ranta of PopMatters summarized by saying Asleep in the Bread Aisle was "a brainless summer record with flashes of conscience. Roth can do better or, at the very least, discover his own voice."^[21]

Universal Records underestimated the initial sales of the album and only shipped about 100,000 retail copies of the album for the first week, and that it didn't reach as many stores as initially planned, according to Roth.

Track listing

Chart positions

Chart (2009)	Peak positions
Canadian Albums Chart	31[22]
U.S. Billboard 200	5[23]
U.S. Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums	5[24]
U.S. Billboard Top Rap Albums	3[25]
UK Albums Chart	38[26]

Samples

• "As I Em"
  • "Geraldine and John" by Joe Jackson
• "Fallin"
  • "Falling" by Ben Kweller
  • "Kissing My Love" by Bill Withers
• "I Love College"
  • "Say It Ain't So" by Weezer (removed) ^[19]
  • "Impeach the President" by the Honey Drippers
  • "10% Diss" by MC Lyte
• "Blunt Cruisin'"
  • "Kukredi Cimenler" by Edip Akbayram
• "Y.O.U."
  • "You Are You" by The Original Cast of "Flora the Red Menace"
• "Lark on my Go Kart"
  • "Swordsman" by GZA

References

External links

• Asleep in the Bread Aisle at Metacritic