Artist Playlists
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Rapper, rocker and country crooner Kid Rock matches a knack for pop reinvention with a blue-collar swagger reflective of his Motor City roots. Cutting his teeth in the Midwest hip-hop circuit, he blew up with 1998's Devil Without a Cause—a rap-metal crossover packed with rebellious rhymes, funky riffs and rolling beats slathered in axle grease. While Rock certainly excels at playing the cocky outlaw, several of his most memorable tunes, including the classic rock anthem “All Summer Long” and the Nashville-tinged “Born Free”, show off his gift for tender, heartland soulfulness. - Kid Rock's influence is everywhere, wedding hip-hop to classic rock and country. Hollywood Undead's slamming “Day of the Dead” imports riff-blazing angst and tough rhymes from Rock's “Cowboy” years, while Brantley Gilbert's Nashville tearjerker “Stone Cold Sober” is slathered in the front-porch realness of Born Free. Uncle Kracker's acoustic-pop ditty “Smile” oozes the feel-good vibes of “All Summer Long”.
- Trace Kid Rock's musical lineage through his influences and see how his eclectic career originated. Kid's earlier hip-hop material can be linked to his love of N.W.A. and Too $hort. His mid-career segue into rap-rock nods to the Beastie Boys and Limp Bizkit. And he pays his respects to Johnny Cash and David Allan Coe in his later blues, country and rock years.
- Under Kid Rock's brash rap-rock veneer is a troubadour influenced by earnest country and Rust Belt rock 'n' roll. The classic rock–leaning "Prodigal Son" boasts chunky electric-guitar riffage that sounds best being blasted out a car window, while "Single Father" is a full-on cry-in-your-whiskey country ballad dedicated to all the dads tackling parenthood alone.