Kid Rock’s debut is embarrassing. Full of trashy and unmemorable songs, it is a poor effort by the guy who later became a rock star. The cover art is kind of cool, but shows Kid Rock with a douche flat top sort of hairstyle. The music here is Rap with some Rock influences. Let’s actually listen to this rather ordinary release, see how it holds up.

We kick off with the phone conversation of Yo-Da-Lin In The Valley. It’s a song about oral sex, rather disgusting and unimaginative. It’s very Hip Hop oriented, and actually quite funny in a musical sense. The production here is pretty naff, sounding pretty terrible at the time, and especially today. The sexual references are awkward, and Kid Rock sounds like he is not doing a great job here. Entertaining lyrically though. A college radio station broadcast this song and got a huge six figure fine for doing so. Says it all.

Next is the unusual and kind of catchy Genuine Article which is a more typical Kid Rock statement of the time. It’s upbeat and sort of funky, with some annoying guitar samples and instrumentation. Kid Rock brags in an uncomfortable way about his life. It’s okay, but more bad than good. “Cos’ I work like a bitch to get the job done,” is repeatedly chanted here. It’s too repetitive to enjoy for the most part, however.

Cramp Ya Style has some interesting bongo beats at the start, before going into a weird sounding piece which is seemingly about nothing important lyrically. This music easily could have been junked, it’s not really good at all. It’s Kid Rock bragging without actually doing anything good musically. A forgettable track, and no, don’t listen to it either. It has a lot of selfish talk, which is unappealing lyrically and musically. A poor attempt at music.

New York’s Not My Home disses the biggest city in the USA. It has some interesting subject matter lyrically, but it’s not Kid Rock, it’s Kid Flop here. It talks about bad traffic, transvestites and expensive food, over a lame musical backing. It is interesting that Kid Rock quickly learned from this mistake of a record fairly quickly. It’s a lyrical protest against the big city life. A bad song overall though.

Next is Super Rhyme Maker which is a bit more straightforward of a listen, and yep, has a go at Johnny Depp (who wasn’t hugely famous then). Enough said, it’s rather ordinary, lyrically having an attitude that is rather degrading to women as well. Of course, Rappers have had a long history of doing so, but this is a fairly bad example of it.

Following is With a One-Two which is terrible and rubbish. It has a very much David Lee Roth sort of attitude about it, but it feels like a chore going through such an uninspired listen. The less said about it, the better. It talks about Kid Rock’s sexual exploits, not exactly something loads of people wish to hear. Rather gross, just like a pornography video, except that it is set to music. Terrible.

Wax The Booty is the highlight of the album. It tells a story of a not-so-typical sexual adventure of Kid Rock’s experience. It’s really funny, gross, interesting and disgusting in the most non politically correct way. It’s an interesting listen but it is feral. The last set of lyrics really are horrible. This track is for a laugh, nothing else. The sampled phone conversation at the end is also humourous.

Pimp Of The Nation is a much faster Rap piece with Kid Rock imagining himself to be the future pimp of the USA. It’s once again, rather funny, but awful a song. It’s clearly placing emphasis on the lyrics, and nothing else here. There is a bit of a twist towards the end, but who cares? Ordinary.

Next is the Abdul Jabar Cut which is completely forgettable and uninspirational. It’s a really pathetic effort overall and references Kid Rock’s future hero Donald Trump. Seriously a waste of money, time and effort here. Good thing he learned from his mistakes on this album and lifted his game later on. Nothing good here.

Following is Step In Stride. It samples James Brown and is, once again, pretty awful. Kind of oddly funky, it’s a weird song, but not in a good way. Kid Rock needed more time to develop his craft. This is simply not good enough for music. The world of music agrees.

The Upside comes next. It’s about Kid Rock’s adventures in a fantasy land, and is once again, highly sexist. This music is poorly thought out and trashy. Nothing superb about it, and it samples James Brown, yet again. Terrible. Like drinking a cup of vomit, this quite clearly should be avoided. The female singing at the end is really not needed here. Way too long.

Style Of X-Pression is actually a slight improvement over the other tracks here. It’s not good, but has some way more profound statements from Kid Rock, unusually. The mix of sound is a slight improvement on other songs from this album. Still mediocre though. Also has an unusual anti-drug stance by Kid Rock lyrically.

Finally, we have the last and very forgettable tune Trippin’ Over A Rock. It’s a poor finish to a poor album. The less said about tunes like these, the better. Fortunately, Kid Rock lifted his game afterwards.

Sexist. Awful. Toxic music. This album has only one half good song on it (Wax The Booty) and is likely one of the worst albums ever made. That says it all, please avoid this album.

2/10