Released August 18, 1998 Producer Kid Rock, John Travis Release date 18 August 1998 | Length 71:12 Artist Kid Rock Label Top Dog/Atlantic | |
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Recorded September 1997–July 1998 Devil Without a Cause
(1998) The History of Rock
(2000) Genres Rap rock, Heavy metal, Hard rock, Southern rock, Rap metal, Nu metal, Country rap, Funk metal Similar Kid Rock albums, Hip hop music albums | ||
Devil Without a Cause is the fourth studio album by Kid Rock, released on August 18, 1998. The album was produced by Kid Rock with John Travis. It is Kid Rock's last album to be categorized as "hip hop" before crossing over to more traditional rock music. AllMusic labeled the album as a "rap-rock masterpiece".
Contents
The album was certified 11× Platinum by the RIAA by April 2003. It is Kid Rock's best-selling album, and as of 2015 it has sold 9,500,000 plus copies in the United States, according to Nielsen soundscan. (RIAA is units shipped, Soundscan is units scanned)
Initially, Atlantic Records was not sold on the idea of signing Kid Rock based on the strength of his material. Kid Rock then entered the studio and cut a two-song demo tape featuring "Somebody's Gotta Feel This", a punk rock song with a southern rock chorus and "I Got One for Ya" a blues song with Robert Bradley. Jason Flom immediately signed him and the band for $100,000 after hearing the tracks.
The song "Bawitdaba" which blended hard rock and hip hop helped increase the popularity of nu/rap metal along with the bands Limp Bizkit and Korn. This led to the success of new groups like Linkin Park, P.O.D., Papa Roach and Saliva. "Cowboy" also aided in ushering in the then-new genre "country rap" or "hick hop". The song has gone on to influence Toby Keith, Blake Shelton, Trace Adkins, Big & Rich, Uncle Kracker, Gretchen Wilson, Jason Aldean, Brantley Gilbert, Eric Church, Rehab, Moonshine Bandits and Colt Ford.
Originally "Cowboy", "Devil Without a Cause" and "Only God Knows Why" were rejected by Atlantic Records. The label did not understand a rap song about a cowboy and wanted him to take the "I'm going platinum" line out of the title track, because at that point, his albums had gone nowhere. "Only God Knows Why" was too country; they wanted a pure rock album. Rock wrote the first four lines of the song in jail after being arrested for a bar fight he got into while celebrating being signed to Atlantic. The song "Wasting Time" documented his frustrations with the label after he developed writer's block. Because of this he brought back four old tracks—"I Am the Bullgod" from 1993's Fire It Up EP; "Roving Gangster (Rollin)", a demo left off Early Mornin' Stoned Pimp; as well as "Where U at Rock" and "Black Chick, White Guy" off EMSP. The album got its first exposure on the video game Road Rash 3D; it used "Somebody's Gotta Feel This".
Bawitdaba kid rock
Release and promotion
Atlantic Records would get Kid Rock a slot on the 1998 Vans Warped Tour, then released the lead single "Welcome 2 the Party (Ode 2 the Old School)", which failed to find success. The album did not garner any attention until "I Am the Bullgod" was released; the single peaked at number 31 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks chart and garnered the attention of MTV VJ Carson Daly. Kid Rock would go on to open for Monster Magnet on the "White Trash On Dope Tour" in late 1998. Kid Rock would then get his big break performing on MTV's Fashionably Loud and MTV's Wanna Be A VJ in early 1999. MTV took Kid Rock under their wing and he was featured during their spring break special "Say What Karaoke" and MTV Beach Brawl. This led to heavy rotation of his next single and his first headline tour called "Destroy Your Liver." The HBO special "Reverb" aired his hometown performance on March 21, 1999.
"Bawitdaba", the third single, bubbled under the Billboard Hot 100 at number 4, but nevertheless was successful on rock radio, peaking at number 10 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart and number 11 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks. The song was used in the trailer for the 2000 movie, The Gladiator and his performance at Woodstock 99 made him a household name. He then went on a European tour and performed at the Rock AM and IM Festivals.
"Cowboy", the fourth single, charted at number 82 on the Hot 100 and number 34 on the Mainstream Top 40, as well as number 5 on the Modern Rock Tracks and number 10 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks. The fifth single was "Only God Knows Why", which charted at number 19 on the Hot 100 and number 6 on the Mainstream Top 40, with peaks of number 5 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks and number 13 on the Modern Rock Tracks. He would then go on the Millennium Tour with Metallica, Creed, Ted Nugent and Sevendust. Finally, the album's sixth and final single was "Wasting Time", which was a minor mainstream rock hit at number 35.
The album's censored version removes most profanity as well as the songs "Fuck Off" and "Black Chick, White Guy". The clean version of the disc features a black background with Kid Rock's name printed on the disc, while the unedited version features an image of Kid Rock's right hand with a raised middle finger (the disc of Kid Rock's next album Cocky would later feature both of Rock's hands making the same gesture) with no text on the disc. Also, on the clean version, the song "Welcome 2 the Party (Ode 2 the Old School)" has some portions cut from the song, along with some lyrics being altered. The clean edit shortens the song length from 5:14 to 3:52. Several songs on the album have explicit words censored out. The song "Cowboy" censors out "this dick fits right up your ass" and "suck my dick" in the My only words are wisdom line. Fuck off has "cancer" and "be no homo". Welcome 2 the Party censored out "fuck" and "ass".
Legacy
Track listing
Sample credits
Demos
Personnel
Songs
1Bawitdaba4:26
2Cowboy4:18
3Devil Without a Cause [Explicit]5:33