Kid Rock
One of the unlikeliest success stories in rock at the turn of the millennium, Detroit rap-rocker Kid Rock shot to superstardom with his fourth full-length album, 1998's Devil Without a Cause. What made it so shocking was that Rock had recorded his first demo a full decade before, been booted off major label Jive following his Beastie Boys-ish 1990 debut, Grits Sandwiches for Breakfast, and toiled for most of the decade in obscurity, releasing albums to a small, devoted, mostly local fan base while earning his fair share of ridicule around his home state. N...[more]
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It's unlikely that even Kid Rock believed he had an album as good as Devil Without a Cause in him. Nobody else believed it, that's for sure. But he didn't just find the perfect extention of his Beastie and Diamond Dave infatuations here, he came up with the great hard rock album of the late '90s -- a fearlessly funny, bone-crunching record that manages to sustain its strength, not just until the end of its long running time, but through repeated plays. The key to its sucesss is that it's neve [ read more ]
CD $18.03
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Kid Rock gained his fame as a white-trash rapper, but he retained his fame as a white-trash rocker, using the breakthrough of 1998's Devil Without a Cause to refashion himself as a modern-day blue-collar rocker, as comfortable with crunching bluesy riffs as he is with heartbroken country. The former Bob Ritchie started this transformation on 2001's Cocky, an enjoyably jumbled album that didn't quite take off until "Picture," his straight country duet with Sheryl Crow, was embraced by [ read more ]
CD $18.03
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Great title. Pretty good album. Perhaps it shouldn't be a surprise that Kid Rock decided to follow his Devil Without a Cause blueprint for its follow-up, since that was the record where he figured out how to mix "the hard rock/Southern rock with the hip-hop," creating a towering, powerful, original blend of country-fried metal, heartland rock, knowing arena rock posturing, old-school rap, and classic American hard rock. It was what he planned to do from the outset, so why sh [ read more ]
CD $18.03
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Despite his assertions that he was "going platinum" throughout the title track of Devil Without a Cause, nobody expected Kid Rock to sell 7,000 copies of his fourth record, let alone 7,000,000. This was a guy who was pretty much considered a joke (if he was considered at all) ever since the 1990 release of his sub-Beasties debut, Grits Sandwiches for Breakfast. College radio veterans tell tales of being inundated with copies of the CD, receiving so many free copies that they eventually ran out o [ read more ]
CD $13.28
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I don't suspect that even Kid Rock believed he had an album as good as Devil Without a Cause in him. Nobody else believed it, that's for sure. But he didn't just find the perfect extention of his Beastie and Diamond Dave infatuations here, he came up with the great hard rock album of the late '90s -- a fearlessly funny, bone-crunching record that manages to sustain its strength, not just until the end of its long running time, but through repeated plays. The key to its sucesss is that it's ne [ read more ]
CD $18.03
![]()
Great title. Pretty good album. Perhaps it shouldn't be a surprise that Kid Rock decided to follow his Devil Without a Cause blueprint for its follow-up, since that was the record where he figured out how to mix "the hard rock/Southern rock with the hip-hop," creating a towering, powerful original blend of country-fried metal, heartland rock, knowing arena rock posturing, old-school rap, and classic American hard rock. It was what he planned to do from the outset, so why sho [ read more ]
CD $18.03
![]()
Kid Rock gained his fame as a white-trash rapper, but he retained his fame as a white-trash rocker, using the breakthrough of 1998's Devil Without a Cause to refashion himself as a modern-day blue-collar rocker, as comfortable with crunching bluesy riffs as he is with heartbroken country. The former Bob Ritchie started this transformation on 2001's Cocky, an enjoyably jumbled album that didn't quite take off until "Picture," his straight country duet with Sheryl Crow, was embraced by [ read more ]
CD $18.03
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Devil Without a Cause was so good it caused everybody to re-evaluate Kid Rock, including Rock himself. As he prepped a follow-up, he unleashed The History of Rock, a hodgepodge of new songs, unreleased tunes, demos, old cuts, and re-recordings. This not only bought the Kid time, it gave him a chance to revamp a past that was bordering on the seriously lame. According to The History, Rock always knew what he was doing. Anyone that's heard The Polyfuze Method knows that's not the case, [ read more ]
CD $13.28
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When Devil Without a Cause exploded onto the scene in 1998, Kid Rock was suddenly everywhere, seemingly out of nowhere. But underneath that fedora was the mind of an individual whose white-trash Grandmaster Flash persona had been conceived of, constructed, and refined over almost ten years of dogged determination. As a teenager growing up in Romeo, MI, Rock immersed himself in hip-hop culture. He learned to breakdance, grew in a high-top fade, and began rapping in a style similar to {$the Bea [ read more ]
CD $8.54
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When it comes right down to it, what Kid Rock attempts is kind of tricky: he's trying to create new classic rock, songs to compete with Skynyrd and Seger as the soundtrack of choice for jukeboxes and pickup trucks across the country. This is the sound of the white-trash, downriver rocker in him coming through, triumphing over the jive rapper who brought him his fame. It was there even when he was aping the Beastie Boys and yodeling in the canyon, but once the country-rock of "Picture" revived [ read more ]
CD $18.03
![]()
When it comes right down to it, what Kid Rock attempts is kind of tricky: he's trying to create new classic rock, songs to compete with Skynyrd and Seger as the soundtrack of choice for jukeboxes and pickup trucks across the country. This is the sound of the white-trash, downriver rocker in him coming through, triumphing over the jive rapper who brought him his fame. It was there even when he was aping the Beastie Boys and yodeling in the canyon, but once the country-rock of "Picture" revived [ read more ]
CD $18.03
![]()
I don't suspect that even Kid Rock believed he had an album as good as Devil Without a Cause in him. Nobody else believed it, that's for sure. But he didn't just find the perfect extention of his Beastie and Diamond Dave infatuations here, he came up with the great hard rock album of the late '90s -- a fearlessly funny, bone-crunching record that manages to sustain its strength, not just until the end of its long running time, but through repeated plays. The key to its sucesss is that it's ne [ read more ]
CD $43.68