Civil rights activists applaud news that Kid Rock won’t renew the licensing agreement for his Made in Detroit restaurant (Dec. 4) AP
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Speaking to Rolling Stone in 2000 for his first cover appearance in the iconic music magazine, Kid Rock summed up his career mission:
“I’m not going to change all my s— around because someone might take it the wrong way, because I might start a spark. I’m here to start sparks.”
Nearly two decades later, has much changed? Not really. But then … oh yes, you better believe it.
The topic at hand in that Rolling Stone exchange was the prevalence of gay slurs in Kid Rock’s early lyrics. It was one of countless contentious matters he would waltz through in the years ahead hoisting a defiant middle finger — and for which he was largely given a pass by the pop-culture establishment.
As Kid Rock approaches 50, recent events have shown he’s still got that edgy behavior in him. But the reaction now is starkly different from those early years, back when mainline pop culture generally laughed off — and often laughed along with — the colorful rock ‘n’ roll guy with the raunchy raps, celebrity disses and trailer-park shtick.
In its own Kid Rock cover story in 2001, Spin magazine noted of his blossoming popularity that “just about everyone in the world seems to like Kid Rock.”
For years, Kid Rock was a rabble-rouser operating in a world where the rabble weren’t actually much roused. Flash forward, and the Michigan-bred star is one of the most polarizing figures in popular culture.
Whether you love or loathe Kid Rock, the recent uproar over his graphic rant about Oprah Winfrey tells us more about the state of culture than it does about the artist himself. In 2019, Kid Rock hasn’t fundamentally changed. But the environment around him certainly has, dominated by deep political division and debate about the roles of tolerance and identity consciousness.
Amid last week’s outrage and argument over Kid Rock, what you were really hearing was the grinding of fault lines as entertainment, celebrity and politics continue settling into an era of heightened sensitivity and tightening moral expectations. He’s an old-school figure who awakened to find himself in the age of woke.
His latest confrontation with the new reality unfolded quickly after Thanksgiving: In a video obtained by TMZ, an apparently intoxicated Kid Rock was seen onstage at his Nashville restaurant, ranting about Winfrey in a sexually profane tirade. Days later, in a delicately worded statement, Ilitch Holdings announced that Rock won’t be renewing the restaurant deal that has put his name front and center at Little Caesars Arena since 2017.
Amid outcry from a Detroit civil-rights group denouncing the Winfrey rant as racist and sexist, Rock shot back with an obscenity-laced response and a clear message: The homegrown rap-rocker was fed up with Detroit. Having once made the city an essential plank in his public identity, Kid Rock seemed to be waving bye-bye, and many here happily waved him along.
The TMZ video wasn’t pretty. Kid Rock was boorish, offensive, over-the-top. He was in a hard-partying mode.
But that’s the thing: Kid Rock’s persona has been boorish, offensive, over-the-top and hard-partying from the start.
American society has shifted dramatically since Kid Rock’s arrival in the ’90s — the era of shock-jock radio, Marilyn Manson and masculine rap braggadocio.
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In hip-hop and rock — Kid Rock’s two primary musical sources — the latest generation of artists increasingly reflect the new standards. Much has been written about today’s crop of hit rappers, figures like Kendrick Lamar, Chance the Rapper and J. Cole, who ply a socially conscious brand of work. In rock, the swagger and shock that marked the ’90s has given way to juice-bar patrons like Greta Van Fleet and ongoing discourse about diversity.
But that wasn’t the currency in play when Bob Ritchie, coming of age in the late ’80s and ’90s, shaped a sound and image that mixed streetwise flash with a trashy twist. “Devil Without a Cause” was released in 1998, and for the next several years, the album turned Kid Rock into a household name as it hummed along to 11 million copies sold.
In Detroit, recent hostility toward Kid Rock is invariably amplified by issues of race. For a long while, the kid from Romeo who called himself “Son of Detroit” was welcomed — rubbing shoulders with mayors and Motown stars, being introduced at concerts by Lions players, accepting honors from the local NAACP. Incidents such as the Winfrey rant, along with Rock’s vocal embrace of Republican politicians, have stoked cynicism in the heavily African-American city.
Still, it’s no leap of imagination to picture a young Kid Rock back in the day blustering across a club stage appearing out of his gourd, calling for some television icon to provide him oral sex. What’s hard to imagine is that in 1999, or even 2009, it would have been national news.
Another recent furor, this one involving fellow Detroit star and onetime collaborator Eminem, reinforces just how much everything has shifted.
In a snippet of a never-released 2009 track that leaked online last month, Eminem is heard making light of Chris Brown’s assault of Rihanna earlier that year: “Of course I side with Chris Brown,” he raps. “I’d beat a bitch down too.”
The unearthed verse spurred global headlines and widespread condemnation. The mass indignation wasn’t surprising — but it also wasn’t there 20 years ago, when the opening 60 seconds of Eminem’s first hit song featured rhymes about impregnating Spice Girls and ripping off Pamela Lee’s breasts.
That’s not to say Kid Rock and Eminem didn’t have their detractors in those days. But the heat then was isolated and less intense, typically coming from traditional-culture defenders — the ones who got parental-advisory stickers slapped onto albums — and progressive enclaves that probably felt they were shouting into the wind.
It’s interesting to recall a time when backlash toward Kid Rock largely came from the right: In 2005, for instance, when rumors swirled he was booked to play George W. Bush’s inauguration, the conservative American Family Association led the protests that got him booted from the bill.
That’s why last week’s brouhaha was telling. The same media and cultural establishment that once uplifted Kid Rock is now out to hang him for being the guy he always was.
Amid the clamor, it was left to one of Rock’s biggest foes to raise that point. Activist Sam Riddle of the Michigan National Action Network, the Detroit civil-rights group that has spearheaded recent protests against the musician, singled out his true target of ire.
“The real deal here is not about Kid Rock,” Riddle said Wednesday outside Little Caesars Arena. Gesturing at gathered reporters, he said the culprit is the media that has “normalized” him.
Matt Friedman of the Detroit public-relations firm Tanner Friedman says what we might be seeing with the Kid Rock flap are evolving expectations for celebrities.
When it comes to reputation, entertainers long benefited from the maxim that any publicity is good publicity. Kid Rock found success because of — not despite — his brand “as a rebellious figure who cuts against the grain,” as Friedman puts it.
“We’ve held them to a really low standard, historically,” says Friedman, whose specialties include crisis management. “That’s what makes this case interesting: Are we now saying as a society that we’re going to hold this celebrity to a higher standard, at least in his backyard? The fact that that question is being asked is interesting and new. Because I’m not sure there have been standards.”
Has Kid Rock morphed over time? In some ways, sure. His sound has moved in new directions — from that early Beastie-Boys-meet-Van-Halen mishmash into something more country-rock. Over time, the pimp-of-the-nation character gave way to the buccaneering redneck-rock-‘n’-roller he’s best known as now. In recent years, he’s made Nashville his primary home, with close pals like Hank Williams Jr.
And unlike his early stage — when Rock was vaguely right-leaning, but not explicitly partisan — he’s become increasingly outspoken about politics, most notably in his embrace of President Donald Trump.
Indeed, many close to Rock argue that when it comes down to it, that’s all you need to know about the broadside he’s now encountering.
“That’s when all this started — when he took a public political stance,” says John Stone, a Nashville musician and longtime friend of Rock. “They know Kid Rock has been an outspoken supporter of Trump, and they’re going to get him any way they can.”
For his part, Kid Rock hasn’t taken it lying down. In Trumpian fashion, he has parlayed the backlash into a badge of honor — the guy fighting back forces determined to take him out, political correctness be damned. Even as the culture shifts, he’s found a way to get something out of it.
But the loud-mouthed, foul-mouthed character in last week’s TMZ video — was that really some new, off-the-rails, game-changing version of Kid Rock? The guy who once cranked out indie releases like “Balls in Your Mouth”? Who went on to introduce himself on MTV as “Pimp of the Nation”? Who rapped about feeling up female airline attendants?
And who nevertheless was swept to fame, riches and establishment approval?
In other words, from Kid Rock’s point of view, he long ago got the green light to be Kid Rock.
Perhaps his consistency shouldn’t be a surprise. In a hit song from his 2001 album “Cocky” — which harmlessly name-checked Oprah, for what it’s worth — Rock declared he was going to be himself for the long haul.
“I’ll forever be the Kid Rock,” he rapped. “Forever!”
Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@freepress.com.
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