It seems like, every few years or so, a new, ego-maniacal, out-of-touch white rapper comes along and reminds us all how the public education system has failed us. In 1990, we had Vanilla Ice.

Then came Eminem, and now we have to deal with this Asher Roth clown. I’ve been trying to figure out why I find him and his “I Love College” song so obnoxious. It’s not that I mind the college party scene, or even the attitude surrounding it – most of the people who take it too seriously either snap out of it or eventually reap what they sow. I think what bothers me the most is how popular he is despite the fact that the “Isn’t College Partying GREAT?!” thing has been done. To death. It was done in the 70’s by Animal House and again 30 years later by Old School.

So it’s not that the song is obnoxious – though, again, I stress that it is – it’s that it’s almost mind-numbingly unoriginal. I realized, then, that that’s also what I didn’t really like about Eminem – everyone praised the guy for being a game changer by introducing rap to a new generation of white kids, but he didn’t really offer a whole lot.

Carles over at Hipster Runoff has an interesting article asking if Asher Roth is the new Eminem: white, popular, and inexplicably irrelevant. “Not sure how I feel about white rappers. Think we don’t need them, since most white people haven’t gone through an authentic struggle,” he says. “And if they did ’struggle’ it was probably in a gross white trash kind of way that we could probably ‘make fun of’ very easily.” Interesting.

If you’re curious (or you really are unfortunately a fan), you can see him next Thursday afternoon at Wallypalooza. The Facebook event is here.