Interview: Asher Roth Makes His Final Four Picks, Talks John Calipari and His Final Four Tour

Asher Roth has never been one to shy away from his love of sports. From shouting out Marcus Allen, Fred Biletnikoff, and Ed McCaffrey on his track "I'm Eddy" to likening himself to San Francisco 49ers quarterback Alex Smith in an article for ESPN, Asher lives and dies with his teams. He understands how sports can control people's lives and emotion in an infuriating way.

Nothing captures the passion of the sports world quite like an NCAA March Madness tournament. The upsets, the Cinderella stories and the buzzer-beaters all contribute to make for an unreal month of basketball. Asher took that craziness and applied it to a live performance tour that he rightfully dubbed the Final Four Tour. Over the past month and a half, he's hit 11 NCAA tournament campuses, coming to a close today in New Orleans, where the Final Four is held this year. Asher took a minute to talk to Complex about the tour and give us his Final Four picks for this weekend.

As told to Tony Markovich (@T_Marko)

The Final Four Tour is pretty much done. It was just a matter of getting out and correlating the whole sports and music thing. The relationship goes hand in hand. From a professional level, athletes want to be rappers and rappers want to be athletes. Most of us got cut from JV or varsity or didn’t play in college and that was it. There is such an admiration for sports. It makes my whole world make sense. I’m always saying, “I need my offensive line, I need my starting five to make this all happen."

We just wanted to get out and have the privilege of going to the top programs in the country from Syracuse to North Carolina to Kentucky to Louisville, Ohio State, and Kansas. We really lucked out and made it to all the schools that are in the Final Four now. We just wanted to go out and see some kids, do a few shows and see some basketball games. With March Madness being one of the best sports tournaments, it just adds to this great time of year. You have Spring Break and St. Patrick’s Day, so it was just a great chance to play some live music and see where we’re at with our live performances.

Asher's Pick: Kentucky
I can’t see how Kentucky is going to lose that game. It’s going to be cool, and it’s going to be heated with Louisville versus Lexington. It’ll be a war. Kentucky is an amazingly talented basketball team. I know Calipari has his whole past of missing free throws in Memphis and shit, but they have four NBA-caliber players. They’ll probably lead by eight the whole game and Louisville will make their put, because basketball is all about runs. I just see them winning by eight. 74-66.

As long as he’s winning basketball games, he’s cool [Laughs.]. He’s always there at the end of the day. He’s unstoppable at home, so I don’t really think I can question him. As far as his ethics, that’s completely his choice and that’s how he wants to run his program. I don’t know what I would do differently, if I’m the head basketball coach. I’d go out and seek the most talented basketball players. I’d take it very seriously.

Asher's Pick: Kansas
I love Kansas in that game. I think Thomas Robinson is a monster. I want to see Robinson and Anthony Davis play together. You might as well watch those two go at it. Jared Sullinger has been battling injuries, so that shouldn't be a problem. We want to see T-Rob versus Anthony Davis.

Asher's Pick: Kentucky
I really like this final. I’m not mad at Kansas and Kentucky at all. The Mario Chalmers game feels like it just happened, and that was the Calipari Memphis team. So, I would not mind Kansas hitting another last-second shot to win this again, but I think Calipari finally wins a National Championship. He’s not that bad of a guy. I don’t know why everybody hates on him. Sure, he’s on some gangster shit, but it’s real in the field. It’s real out here. You have to win some championships.

It has to be Thomas Robinson. I would love to see Robinson reverse dunk on everybody. I just think that if he is on the floor that you have issues. You have somebody to worry about. If that dude gets the ball, you gotta get low. Players think about that, and I think he changes games. Kansas is playing well. They just spanked UNC. Even without Kendall, they still had Harrison Barnes, Tyler Zeller and John Henson. That’s still an extremely talented team, and Kansas handled them.