Devil Without a Cause

Devil Without a Cause is the fourth studio album by American rapper Kid Rock. Released on August 18, 1998, the album saw Kid Rock continuing to develop his sound, moving away from the predominantly hip hop sound of his previous albums to a largely rap rock/metal, hard rock, and nu metal sound, and marked the finalization of his stage persona as a 'redneck pimp'. Additionally, the song "Cowboy" is seen as being instrumental in the development of the fusion genre country rap.
"Devil Without a Cause" was a major commercial success. Spurred by the popularity of the single "Bawitdaba", the album sold 15 million copies, and was certified diamond. The album also received critical acclaim for its genre-mixing sound.
Background.
In 1997, Jason Flom, head of Lava Records, attended one of Kid Rock's performances, and met with Kid Rock, who later gave him a demo containing the songs "Somebody's Gotta Feel This" and "I Got One for Ya", which led to Kid Rock signing with Atlantic Records. As part of his recording deal, Kid Rock received $150,000 from the label. By this time, Kid Rock had fully developed his pimp redneck stage persona and rap metal musical style and wanted to make a "redneck, shit-kicking rock 'n' roll rap" album.
Recording.
The album was recorded at the White Room in Detroit and mixed at the Mix Room in Los Angeles.
In addition to the newly written songs, the band also re-recorded some of Kid Rock's older songs, including "I Am the Bullgod" from Kid Rock's earlier EP "Fire It Up" and "Black Chick, White Guy" from the album "Early Mornin' Stoned Pimp". During the recording sessions, Eminem was mixing "The Slim Shady LP" at the same studio, and, being friends with Kid Rock, asked him to record scratching for the song "My Fault." In return, Eminem delivered a guest rap verse on Kid's song "Fuck Off." In a 1999 interview with Spin Magazine, Eminem told the interviewer that he did coke for the first and last time ever while writing and recording his verse with Kid. According to Eminem, Kid was in "full party mode with tons of different drugs just laid out near the studio mixing board. There were Playboy playmates just passed out naked with coke on their nose. It was overwhelming. I never touched that shit again."
Composition.
Style.
The music on "Devil Without a Cause" is noted for its eclectic sound, which draws from genres such as arena rock, country music, heartland rock, heavy metal and hip hop. This sound has predominantly been categorized by critics and journalists as rap metal, hard rock, nu metal, and rap rock. Kid Rock's music has been described by "Pitchfork" as a cross between Run-DMC, Lynyrd Skynyrd and AC/DC. "MTV" compared Kid Rock's songs "I Am the Bullgod" and "Roving Gangster (Rollin')" to a cross between Alice in Chains and Public Enemy.
According to Allmusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine, "The key to [the album's] success is that it's never trying to be a hip-hop record. It's simply a monster rock album." Erlewine credits Kid Rock's backing band, Twisted Brown Trucker, for crafting a sound defined by "thunderous, funky noise -- and that's funky not just in the classic sense, but also in a Southern-fried, white trash sense, as he gives this as much foundation in country as he does hip-hop." Erlewine believes the album's sound owed influence to Bob Seger, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Van Halen." Erlewine also believed the album was "firmly in the tradition of classic hard rock".
Music and lyrics.
"Bawitdaba" has been described as having a nu metal sound. To create the chorus, Kid Rock combined the choruses of Busy Bee's "Making Cash Money", the Marcels' recording of "Blue Moon" and the Sugar Hill Gang's "Rapper's Delight" into a "neo-gregorian drone". The lyrics of the song are dedicated to "chicks with beepers" and the I.R.S., as well as "all the crackheads, the critics, the cynics / And all my heroes in the methadone clinic." In the demo recording of the song, Kid Rock shouts, "Now get in the pit and try to kill someone!" On the album version, Kid Rock changed the lyrics, replacing the word "kill" with "love". Regarding the change, Kid Rock told the "Baltimore Sun" that he was glad he changed the lyrics, explaining that mosh pits are about coexistence.
The country rap song "Cowboy" was newly written for the album. It is a fusion of hip hop, country music, Southern rock and heavy metal. "Billboard", as well as Kid Rock himself, described the song as a cross between Run DMC and Lynyrd Skynyrd. The instrumentation includes Jew's harp, blues harmonica and a piano solo. The lyrics feature Kid Rock rapping about moving to California to become a pimp, and start an escort service "for all the right reasons", located at the top of the Four Seasons hotel, as well as getting thrown out of bars and buying a yacht.
"I Am the Bullgod", according to AXS, was a tribute to the band Monster Magnet. azcentral described the song's style as Southern rock, with elements of funk, while "Billboard" categorized the song as stoner rock. The lyrics refer to drinking Jim Beam bourbon whiskey; Kid Rock declares that "I am free and I feed on all that is forsaken" and that "I never was cool with James Dean", a reference to the actor who starred in the film that inspired this album's title, "Rebel Without a Cause".
The song "Wasting Time" contains an interpolation of Fleetwood Mac's "Second Hand News". "Welcome 2 the Party (Ode 2 the Old School)" refers to Orson Welles' Paul Masson adverts with the lyric "I will serve no rhymes before their time". "Where U At Rock?" references philosopher Ayn Rand.
"Only God Knows Why" is a country ballad, noted for its prominent use of Auto-Tune. The lyrics of "Black Chick, White Guy" deal with Kid Rock's ten-year off-and-on relationship with a classmate named Kelley South Russell, with whom he fathered one child and raised another child from a previous relationship, but broke up with her after finding out that a third child he was raising wasn't his, after which he gained custody of his son, Robert James Ritchie Jr.; these events became the inspiration for this song, which discusses them directly, although Russell denies some of the allegations made against her in the lyrics.
Reception.
Critical reviews.
The album received critical acclaim upon release. Robert Christgau gave the album an A–, writing, "Belatedly fulfilling the rap-metal promise of "Licensed to Ill", [Kid Rock] makes the competition sound clownish, limp, and corny, respectively, and the Eminem cameo is a draw [...] [Kid Rock] is, and I quote, all of that and a bag of chips."
"The Rolling Stone Album Guide" gave the album four out of five stars, its byline hailing it as "a trailer trash triumph of metal guitars, hip-hop beats, and I'm-an-American-band egomania." Stephen Thomas Erlewine, in a retrospective review for Allmusic, gave the album four and a half out of five stars, writing, "[Kid Rock] 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."
In a negative review, "Pitchfork" gave the album 1.3 out of 10, writing, "The hook is that "Devil Without A Cause" combines rap with metal, but this combination's already been done a million times, and in each case, the result was better than this. Do you really need predictable pimping rhymes over wack-ass metal beats with third-tier, grunge-derived choruses among your records? I ask you: is this what you're missing from your life?"
Commercial performance.
Starting in 1998, Kid Rock disembarked on his Devil Without a Cause Tour. Through extensive promoting, including appearances on HBO, MTV (including a performance alongside Aerosmith and Run-DMC) and performing at Woodstock 1999, "Devil Without a Cause" sold 14 million copies, the album's success spurred by Kid Rock's breakthrough hit single "Bawitdaba".
By April 1999, the album was certified gold, and the following month it was certified platinum, a certification the album received 11 times. The album has since been certified diamond. The album had sold 8.9 million copies per Nielsen SoundScan as of 2007.
In 2000, Kid Rock was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best New Artist, despite having been active in the music industry for over 10 years.
Legacy.
The album continued to be popular long after its release, and in 2012, Kid Rock said that he wanted to re-record the album in its entirety, partly to celebrate the album's 15th anniversary, and partly because he would own the master recordings.
The album's critical appraisal has continued long after the album's release, with Allmusic labeling "Devil Without a Cause" a "rap-rock masterpiece". The song "Cowboy" is considered by AXS to be the first in the country rap genre; "Cowboys &amp; Indians" claims that Kid Rock's song had a major impact on the country music scene and that artists Jason Aldean and Big &amp; Rich, among others, were influenced by the song.
15 years after the album's release, "The Village Voice" writer Chaz Kangas praised Kid Rock's artistry, writing, "in the Clinton era when your most viable pop stars were pristine teen-pop sensations, raucous nu-metal antagonists or alternative-to-alternative-to-alternative rock weirdos, Rock stood alone." Praising the song "Cowboy", Kangas called it "one track from this era that's timeless without even trying to be."
Loudwire named "Devil Without a Cause" one of the 10 best hard rock albums of 1998. "Classic Rock" magazine named "Devil Without a Cause" one of 10 essential rap metal albums. "Blender" named "Devil Without a Cause" one of the 100 greatest American albums. The album was also listed as one of the "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die".