Devil Without A Cause

Kid Rock

Lava, 1998

http://www.kidrock.com/

REVIEW BY: Benjamin Ray

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 10/24/2012

For much of my high school career, this was one of the hot CDs. Everyone owned it. With the graphic of the ring-encrusted middle finger flipped up on the disc, speakers blaring “Bawitdaba” and “Cowboy,” radio playing “Only God Knows Why,” everyone knew the story of how a nobody redneck from a Detroit suburb made it big. For kids in the late ‘90s, Kid Rock was cool.

Since then, of course, he has gone equal parts country and Bob Seger 2.0, trying hard to appeal to everybody and leave his embarrassing white rap past behind. A select few may remember that Kid Rock started out as a straight-up white rapper from the License To Ill school on albums nobody heard like The Polyfuze Method and Early Morning Stoned Pimp. It was a career going nowhere fast.

Until Kid Rock hooked up with Twisted Brown Trucker, a true rock band, and in one fell swoop married his love of Southern rock to his white rap past and created a party record that reverberated across the radio. Rock and rap had been bosom buddies before – think Rage Against the Machine, Run-DMC and the aforementioned Beasties – but Kid Rock’s adherence to the classic rock mentality was different. Unfortunately, it paved the way for acts like Linkin Park and Limp Bizkit, but that’s not entirely his fault, right?my_heart_sings_the_harmony_web_ad_alt_250

All this is to say that Devil Without A Cause is a fine record. Not a great one, for Rock still doesn’t fully abandon the raps and embarrassing lyrics like “Gotta make this money and I make this money / This money is me this money is everything I do and see” or “Top dog I’m the CEO / Role model, your m***********g hero / My motto, be cool, keep pimpin’ / Don’t sleep, we roll deep in a Lincoln.” Yeah, I know part of rap is all about the boast, but a grown man shouldn’t sing stuff like this.

That last line is taken from the title track, which actually starts off better by telling, in essence, the story of how Kid got to this point and who he is. But it falls off the rails when pint-sized Joe C shows up at the end for his high-pitched rap; it may have been a nice gesture for Kid Rock to let his friend rap on his album, but it’s a little weird all the same. Still, the infectious blare underneath makes it hard to dismiss.

“I Am The Bullgod” and “Bawitdaba,” the second and third singles, remain two of the better flat-out rock songs of the end of the decade. The band plays like a mother behind Rock’s trashy, party-hardy declarations, boasts and urgings to get in the pit and try to love someone. “I Got One For Ya” is trashy fun…well, actually, the same could be said for the upbeat “Wasting Time” and the irrepressible “Cowboy,” a straight-up cartoon set to music.

Less successful is the Eminem duet “F**k Off,” the humdrum “Welcome 2 The Party” (the first single, a poor choice) and the dull “Roving Gangster.” But Rock throws two curveballs in. The first is the country pop of “Only God Knows Why,” his first and best crossover song in this style, and the second is the closing story-song of “Black Chick, White Guy,” which is musically bereft but hits home with its story and sample of “Ain’t No Sunshine” in the chorus. Both are proof that Rock is more than just boasts over Southern-baked rock, and they give the album a bit of depth.

Best listened to loud, Devil Without A Cause is at heart a party rock record with no aspirations other than sex and drinking 40s and celebrating the night with your buddies. It also stands alone among both Kid’s discography and among rock albums of the year, perhaps the last half of the decade; certainly, there were better ones with more variety and fewer embarrassing lyrics, but there also were few this much fun.

Rating: B

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© 2012 Benjamin Ray and The Daily Vault. All rights reserved. Review or any portion may not be reproduced without written permission. Cover art is the intellectual property of Lava, and is used for informational purposes only.