For those of you who don’t know, Kid Rock came into the music scene out of Detroit, Michigan sometime during the year 1990, where he got his first record deal and released his first album,
Grits Sandwiches For Breakfast when he was only 19 years old. However, Kid Rock did not become famous until 8 years and 3 albums later.
Devil Without A Cause, Kid Rock’s 4th full length record, went platinum 7 times with the hits
Bawitdaba,
Cowboy, and
Only God Knows Why, which anyone who listens to the radio have undoubtedly heard. Kid Rock instantly became a music icon that was loved and hated by all who listened to his ‘white trash’ rapping/ singing mixed with both hard rock and country music.
Devil Without A Cause is second on a timeline of how much Kid Rock has changed in both music and attitude.
During Grits Sandwiches For Breakfast,
The Polyfuze Method, and
Fire It Up!, he was nothing but just one of your ‘another-white-trash-rappers’ who had nothing to say but complain about how ‘f*cked up’ he is or how ‘f*cked up’ everyone else is. Kid Rock obviously didn’t want to stay that guy. When
Devil Without A Cause came out in 1998, Kid Rock had a rock band, the Twisted Brown Trucker, behind him, a new set of ideas for his music, and a bigger focus on how much life has changed for him since 1990. After that, Kid Rock made a compilation CD filled with some of his old ‘hits’ before
Devil Without A Cause, this album was called
The History Of Rock. It wasn’t until his album
Cocky, that Kid Rock started to discover his true roots, thus adding more country rock into the mix. With the release of his new self-titled album,
Kid Rock, the now well known rap rock artist converted himself to almost pure country-rock!
To me, personally, there is not much difference between Kid Rock’s rapping to that of other rappers like him, including Eminiem (excluding the fact they have different voices in general). However, Kid Rock’s actual singing on the super hit
Only God Knows Why shows that the white rapper from Detroit has great potential, which he later uses to a larger extent with his later albums. Kid Rock’s band, the Twisted Brown Trucker, or TBT as he calls it, are all exceptionally talented musicians. A lot of the music on this album is either a mix of hard rock Metallica style guitar riffs, rap beats similar to Gorillaz that have a hint of alternative style in them, or extremely country-based rock.
Bawitdaba is the first track to kick off this album, beginning very suddle before it bursts into Metallica-like riffs mixed with synths and beats music, making it probably the heaviest song on this CD. Kid Rock’s vocals don’t stand out as much on the song as his band’s backup singing during the chorus does. Overall making this a very catchy song.
Cowboy is next, beginning with that famous electronic, computer voice saying “Cowboy... Cowboy”. This track is one of the slower paced rap songs in which Kid Rock mixes a lot of country humor and weird sampling. The track is very overrated in the media, for it doesn’t really have anything good to show of Kid Rock.
I Am The Bullgod is probably the second heaviest song with, again, very Metallica-like riffs and a very catchy chorus. The guitar styles on the song are very crunchy and rather dull for the most part, as is a lot of the vocals. Most of the other tracks in the middle of the album sound slightly similar in beats and vocals of tracks. These tracks don’t have anything very different about them except some slightly different melodies in the chorus, but they all follow a very similar flow and beat. These include
Devil Without A Cause (featuring Kid Rock’s since passed away friend, Joe C.),
Roving Gangster (Rollin’),
Wasting Time,
Welcome 2 The Party (Ode 2 The Old School),
I Got One For Ya’ (featuring artist Robert Bradley),
Somebody’s Gotta Feel This, and
Where You At Rock?.
Fist Of Rage is definitely the third heaviest and most angsty sounding song on the album, containing more Metallica based riffs and speedy rap numbers.
Only God Knows Why, of course, is the acoustic, country-rock song on the album, and by far the best song by Kid Rock probably ever. The next two tracks,
F*ck Off and
Where You At Rock? feed into each other with about 2 minutes of samples from some of the messages left by Kid Rock’s *cough* friends *cough* on his answering machine.
F*ck Off is probably the most angriest song and also probably the best rap rock song on the album, (which isn’t saying much), in which Kid Rock is backed up by his good friend Eminiem. The last track,
Black Chick, White Guy is an in depth story of some of the sh!t Kid Rock had to deal with when he was younger. The vocals are rather annoying though, and the beat is on a constant repeat that gets extremely annoying after about a minute. This song also contains a slightly heavier remix of I Am The Bullgod, which doesn’t sound much different from the original, only crunchier in guitar distortion. Overall it is a good effort by Kid Rock that people will either love or hate. I used to be a big fan of Kid Rock and this CD, but since then I have grown out of his music and had to rethink my rating on this album.
Pros
-- Kid Rock is a very talented vocalist, but only really while singing.
-- The Twisted Brown Trucker band is overall a very talented band
-- Only God Knows Why and Bawitdaba.
Cons
-- The middle of the CD is rather weak.
-- A lot of the guitar riffs take too much on Metallica.
-- Some of Kid Rock’s lyrics are very cheesy
-- Kid Rock is not a very good rapper.
rack Listing
1. Bawitdaba (4.5/5)
2. Cowboy (2.5/5)
3. Devil Without A Cause (2/5)
4. I Am The Bullgod (3.5/5)
5. Roving Gangster (Rollin’) (2/5)
6. Wasting Time (3.5/5)
7. Welcome 2 The Party (Ode 2 The Old School) (2.5/5)
8. I Got One For Ya’ (1.5/5)
9. Somebody’s Gotta Feel This (2/5)
10. Fist Of Rage (3.5/5)
11. Only God Knows Why (5/5)
12. F**k Off (4/5)
13. Where You At Rock? (3/5)
14. Black Chick, White Guy (2.5/5)
*BONUS TRACK* I Am The Bullgod (Remix) (3.5/5)
