Asleep in the Bread Aisle

Background

On Asleep in the Bread Aisle was known for the contributions from its producers, such as Don Cannon, along with newcomer Oren Yoel, who crafted the bulk of the album's beats. The album features guest appearances from Cee-Lo Green, Jazze Pha, Keri Hilson, Busta Rhymes, pop duo Chester French, and hip hop group New Kingdom from Los Angeles. During the recording sessions, Jazze Pha was at the downstairs recording in the same studio, and then he went upstairs to check things out, which ended up providing some vocals for the track, titled "Bad Day". 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 not inspired by a guy who fell asleep in the bread aisle from taking Tylenol PM, there isn't even a citation. Will we ever know exactly? Probably not, but lets be real, Asleep In the Bread Isle, is a title about money, bread means money. Roth is Asleep in the Money Isle, living the life, get it?

Singles

The album's lead single was "I Love College", which also serves as Roth's commercial debut single. It was released on January 13, 2009. The second single as part of the promotion for the album was "Lark on My Go-Kart". It was released on March 24, 2009.

The album's third single, "Be by Myself" featuring the guest vocals from American singer-songwriter Cee-Lo Green, was released on May 5, 2009. The album's fourth single, "She Don't Wanna Man" was released on July 7, 2009.

Commercial performance

Asleep in the Bread Aisle debuted at number 5 on the US Billboard 200, with nearly 65,000 copies sold in its first week. As of February 2014, the album has sold 214,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Critical reception

Upon its release, Asleep in the Bread Aisle was met with mixed reviews from music critics. 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". 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." 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." 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." 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."

Track listing