You wouldn’t look at Kid Rock in a lineup and pick him out as a rapper, or a rocker. At least not now. His fashion now looks more like a country artist than a rapper/rocker, which is what he truly is. And that’s not the only surprising part about his career – he started in a strictly Catholic family, in a small town in Michigan. Who could have known that he’d become the star he is today?

Early Life

Robert James Ritchie, or Kid Rock, didn’t have a large choice of extracurricular activities in his small Michigan town, he started getting into rap music. His interest in rap music led him to learn how to breakdance, and finally to begin performing at talent shows and parties. It wasn’t long after his first performance debut that he learned he loved the limelight and started DJ’ing parties with a friend.

Grits Sandwiches for Breakfast

If you think of Kid Rock as a rocker, not a rapper, you’re not crazy. He started as a DJ, moved to rap music, then made it big in rock – but let’s talk about his first rap album before we get into that. Grits Sandwiches for Breakfast was his first debut studio album, which he put out with Jive records. It got him some airtime on local radio stations, but nothing huge. He didn’t stay with the album long, and they parted ways in the late ’80s.

A Different Kid Rock

After not making it big with his rap career and Jive records, he started working with the Continuum label. It was with them that he began to transition from rap to rock, which has served him better, success wise. The mid-’90s had a lot of trials and tribulations for Kid Rock. He left Continuum and signed again with Atlantic Records, putting out the album Devil Without a Cause in 1998. That was the album that finally got him his first smash hit, called “Bawitdaba.” Since then, he’s found success with the single “Cowboy” his next album The History of Rock, along with his more recent recordings.