The History of Rock

There are few surprises here: white trash raps hollered over a musical backdrop that sounds like an evil pub rock band.

As essays from high-flying, high, high school dropouts go, however, 'The History Of Rock' isn't bad, if a little low on inspiration.

The History of Rock is proof that he's always been able to smell a good line from a mile away.

Compared with ''Devil Without a Cause,'' it's also underwhelming, a push mower to ''Devil'''s lawn tractor.... The shelved compositions he's finally put on tape didn't necessarily need to be resurrected...

Kid Rock's sound rarely deviates from the explosive metal guitar rap synthesis he has made his trade mark...It is when Kid Rock strays from these familiar musical pastures that he gets into trouble, as in the case of 'Abortion', a rather pathetic attempt at soul...

The History of Rock, despite being not nearly as funny or fruggable, despite mostly haphazardly handpicking rerecorded renditions of old songs that are no match for new hesher-hop product by upstarts like Kottonmouth Kings and Brougham, and despite leaving such fuzzily boinging Beastie-beatboxed scratch-rap goodies as "Live" and "Classic Rock" in the vault, is still a keeper.

The album provides hard evidence that the dynamite punch of 1998's Devil Without a Cause album was no fluke.

Perhaps what makes The History of Rock most interesting -- and what ultimately validates Kid Rock as the real deal -- is that these old tracks prove that his love affair with rap and rock wasn't something he just cooked up to weasel onto MTV's "TRL."

Rock affirms that he is no overnight sensation...

Is The History Of Rock the worst album of all time? In a word: Probably. I suppose I can’t say for sure, as I haven’t heard Kid Rock’s other records.