Devil Without a Cause [Clean] [Edited]

Performer: Kid Rock
Engineer: John Travis; Kid Rock; Al Sutton
Producer: John Travis; Kid Rock
Distributor: WEA (Distributor)

Notes: Personnel: Joe C., Kracker (rap vocals); Kenny Olson, Jimmie Bones (guitar); Jason Krause (electric guitar, keyboards); Stefanie Eulinberg (electric guitar, drums); Jimmy Bones (keyboards); Misty Love (drums, background vocals); Thug-Boy, Tweeds Kracker (turntables); Shirley Hayden (background vocals). Audio Mixers: David Bottrill; Aaron Lepley; Kid Rock; Al Sutton. Recording information: White Room Studios & Temple Of The Dog, Detroit, MI. Directors: Jason Flom; Jennifer Barbato. Photographers: Randy G.; Joseph Cultice. Unknown Contributor Role: Thug-Boy. In the grand tradition of Faith No More, Red Hot Chili Peppers, etc. genre-hopper Kid Rock chooses to lay down his raps over a bed of rock-oriented electric guitar riffs instead of traditional hip-hop tracks and beats. Unlike the aforementioned groups though, Kid Rock comes off more like an adventurous hip-hopper than a rocker with a Public Enemy jones. In an effort to prove himself as "street" as his more conventional rap peers, Rock combines his rockish arrangements with gangsta-derived lyrics full of boasts and sexual braggadocio. DEVIL WITHOUT A CAUSE will appeal to both rock fans in search of something different and hip-hop listeners who like a little rock in their rap. 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 never trying to be a hip-hop record. It's simply a monster rock album, as Twisted Brown Trucker turns out 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. But what really reigns supreme on Devil Without a Cause is a love of piledriving, classic hard rock, not just that of hometown hero Bob Seger, but Lynyrd Skynyrd, Van Halen, and faceless arena rock ballads. The Kid makes it all shine with rhymes so clever and irresistible that it's impossible not to quote them. For all its modernity -- Rock's rapping, the titanic metallic guitars, Joe C's sideshow sidekick, the plea to "get in the pit and try to love someone" -- this is firmly in the tradition of classic hard rock, and it's the best good-time hard rock album in years (certainly the best of the last three years of the '90s). [Devil Without a Cause was also released in a "clean" version, removing most of the profanities and vulgarities -- and, along with them, some of the Kid's jokes.] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Self-proclaimed "King of White Trash" (and proud of it), Kid Rock took his rap-meets-rock-meets-country hybrid to the top of the charts. After opening as a bratty hip-hop artist in the Beastie Boys mode in the early-'90s, Kid came back with a vengeance, diminutive rapper Joe C by his side, on the 1998 smash DEVIL WITHOUT A CAUSE. With a pimp/stud schtick worked to the hilt, he's an outspoken rock & roll spotlight-grabber the likes of which hasn't been seen since the glory days of David Lee Roth. He even betrayed his mellower side on the trail ballad and 2002 hit duet with Sheryl Crow, "Picture."

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