Cocky Kid Rock

Cocky

1	Trucker Anthem 4:39
2	Forever 3:46
3	Lay It on Me 4:56
4	Cocky 3:57
5	What I Learned out on the Road 4:58
6	I'm Wrong, But You Ain't Right 4:56
7	Lonely Road of Faith 5:28
8	You Never Met a Motherf**ker Quite Like Me 4:53
9	Picture 4:58
10	I'm a Dog 3:36
11	Midnight Train to Memphis 4:44
12	Baby Come Home 3:08
13	Drunk in the Morning 5:31
14	WCSR / Snoop Dogg Bonus Track 4:44

Barnes & Noble

The meteoric rise of Kid Rock, the Detroit-based white rapper who toiled in obscurity for a decade before 1998's Devil Without a Cause made him America's favorite badass, has sent music critics searching to explain Bob Ritchie's outrageous fortune. On Cocky, the Kid offers his own take. He wraps his long-haired, baggy-panted, multiethnic, multiracial, riffing, rapping boogie outfit in red-white-and-blue populism, positing the most credible new iteration of truly American music since Creedence Clearwater Revival. Infusing '90s rap-metal fusion with trailer-park twang -- notably on "What I Learned from the Road" and the duet with Sheryl Crow, "Picture" -- Kid Rock's Twisted Brown Trucker band is essentially Lynyrd Skynyrd with a deejay. Rock's singing, which gets equal time with his old-school rapping, seems directly influenced by Johnny Van Zant, even if he gives Hank Williams Jr. props throughout Cocky. Steel guitar licks ring out as often as power chords, and bluesy piano and organ vamps signify a Southern soulfulness that's not far removed from the Black Crowes. If they weren't so obviously fifth- and sixth-generation inspiration, the Kid's country leanings would surely earn him as much cred as Beck, who fuses the same elements with plenty more pretension. But give Kid Rock credit for this: Few before him have dared to recognize the kinship of hip-hop and country. Genially uniting these two American folk musics under his banner of straight-talking capitalist excess, Ritchie does naturally what backpacker rap groups and academic rock critics accomplish only with crushing self-consciousness. Factor in his outrageous persona -- Pam Anderson-dating, shotgun-toting, missing only his departed midget MC sidekick Joe C to complete the bizarro picture -- and it's hard not to love Kid Rock. It's almost un-American. Mark Schwartz

All Music Guide

Great title. Pretty good album. Perhaps it shouldn't be a surprise that Kid Rock decided to follow his Devil Without a Cause blueprint for its follow-up, since that was the record where he figured out how to mix "the hard rock/Southern rock with the hip-hop", creating a towering, powerful original blend of country-fried metal, heartland rock, knowing arena rock posturing, old-school rap, and classic American hard rock. It was what he planned to do from the outset, so why should he give it up now that he could finally do what he always wanted? Still, there's no denying that a sequel simply does not pack the punch and the surprise of the original, no matter how well it's constructed, and that's why it initially is easy to view Cocky as a bit of a disappointment, since it not only offers nothing new, it seems considerably tamer than its predecessor. How could it not? Not only does Kid have nothing to prove this time around -- he not only went platinum, he did it ten times-plus and then landed Sheryl Crow and Pam Anderson -- he no longer has his midget sidekick, Joe C., around to enhance the Midwestern carnival atmosphere of his entourage. That wild, white-trash Fellini-esque vibe is missed, as is the overwhelmingly great songwriting of Devil, but if not viewed as direct competition with its predecessor -- which is, after all, the great hard rock album of the late '90s, filled with great sounds and songwriting -- Cocky is a pretty good sequel. One that roots itself deeper in classic rock than in hip-hop and one that isn't as gonzo or as funny, but is still much, much funnier and looser than any of its competitors, while rocking much harder. If the songs aren't classics or if it tends to drift instead of staying focused like Devil, it still is better than anything else in Kid's catalog and anything else from his rap-metal competitors (he makes all of them sound like rank amateurs), and it has better riffs and earthier rhythms than any hard rock artist since 38 Special, while retaining a true Michigan flavor. That might not make it the equal of Devil Without a Cause, but unpretentious, blue-collar hard rock hasn't sounded this good in nearly 20 years, and that's reason enough to celebrate. Stephen Thomas Erlewine