Kid Rock started his music career as a rapper, releasing his debut album Grits Sandwiches for Breakfast (1990), on Jive Records.

His subsequent independent releases The Polyfuze Method (1993) and Early Mornin' Stoned Pimp (1996) saw him developing a more distinctive style, which was fully realized on his breakthrough album Devil Without a Cause (1998), which sold 14 million copies.

[10] With the help of D-Nice, Kid Rock signed with Jive Records at the age of 17, releasing his debut studio album, Grits Sandwiches for Breakfast in 1990.

[9] Later in the year, Kid Rock recorded the EP Fire It Up at White Room Studios in downtown Detroit, run by brothers Michael and Andrew Nehra, who were forming the rock-soul band Robert Bradley's Blackwater Surprise.

[4] Kid Rock developed his stage persona, performing dressed in 1970s pimp clothing with a real, possibly loaded, gun down the front of his pants.

[4] By this time Kid Rock had fully developed his stage persona, and musical style and wanted to make a "redneck, shit-kicking rock 'n' roll rap" album, resulting in his fourth studio album, Devil Without a Cause, recorded at the White Room in Detroit and mixed at the Mix Room in Los Angeles.

Devil Without a Cause sold over 14 million copies, the album's success initiated by Kid Rock's breakthrough hit single Bawitdaba.

Kid Rock performed "American Bad Ass" along with the Metallica classics "Sad but True", "Nothing Else Matters", "Fuel" and "Enter Sandman" in addition to covers of "Turn the Page" and "Fortunate Son".

In 2002, Kid Rock covered ZZ Top's "Legs" to serve as WWE Diva Stacy Keibler's theme song; it also appeared on the album WWF Forceable Entry.

[21][22] Kid Rock's self-titled sixth album was also released in 2003, which shifted his music further away from hip-hop;[2] the lead single was a cover of Bad Company's "Feel Like Makin' Love".

[23] Kid Rock appeared on the track 'My Name is Robert Too' on American blues artist R. L. Burnside's final studio album, A Bothered Mind.

[26] The album's third single, "All Summer Long", became a global hit, utilizing a mash up of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama" and Warren Zevon's "Werewolves of London".

[28][29] In 2010, Kid Rock released his country-oriented eighth studio album, Born Free, produced by Rick Rubin, and featuring guest appearances by Sheryl Crow and Bob Seger.

On March 29, 2020, Kid Rock released his first single under the name "DJ Bobby Shazam", entitled "Quarantine", which featured an old-school hip-hop sound.

[50][51] On January 25, 2022, Kid Rock released a single, "We the People", in which he criticizes the media, Anthony Fauci, face masks, COVID-19 restrictions, and Big Tech to the chorus of "Let's Go Brandon".

On January 28, 2022, he announced on his upcoming Bad Reputation Tour that he would not perform at venues that require masks and proof of vaccination and would cancel shows at such places.

[53] On March 10, 2022, Kid Rock announced his upcoming twelfth studio album Bad Reputation, which would include his five previously released singles.

[66] In a 2015 interview with Rolling Stone, Kid Rock disavowed nu metal, saying that the genre was "not melodic and doesn't stand the test of time.

[70] Billboard said that Kid Rock "fits comfortably into a modern country-rock landscape that seems practically tailor-made for him: a God-fearing good old boy with a hard-rock heart and an outlaw-country spirit.

[93] In September 2005, Kid Rock filled in for Johnny Van Zant, the lead singer of Lynyrd Skynyrd, on the band's hit "Sweet Home Alabama" at the Hurricane Katrina benefit concert.

[2][95][96][97] In January 2005, Ritchie performed at the inaugural address of reelected president George W. Bush, sparking criticism from conservative groups, due to singing about "how he sexually exploits every girl and then asks them if he can do it with their moms".

[2][99] In 2006, California pornographic film company Red Light District attempted to distribute a 1999 sex tape in which Kid Rock and Scott Stapp, lead singer of the band Creed, are seen partying and receiving oral sex from groupies; both Rock and Stapp filed with the California courts to sue the pornographers to stop the tape's distribution.

[100][101] At the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards, Ritchie got into a fistfight with Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee, another ex of Pamela Anderson's, and was charged with assault.

[2][103] He pleaded no contest to one count and was fined $1,000, as well as being required to perform 80 hours of community service and complete a six-hour anger management course.

[107][108] Ritchie wrote an email to Fox News Channel host Megyn Kelly, stating, "Please tell the people who are protesting to kiss my ass".

[111] On November 30, 2019, Ritchie drew controversy after he was recorded making a series of inappropriate and inflammatory statements while intoxicated at his restaurant in Nashville, including about Oprah Winfrey and Joy Behar.

[112] After receiving major pushback for his comments, Ritchie decided to close the Detroit branch of his restaurant in December 2019, located at the Little Caesar's Arena.

"[120] On April 3, 2023, Kid Rock posted a video on Twitter in which he is shown shooting cases of Bud Light beer cans with a submachine gun, which was seen as being in response to an advertising campaign by Anheuser-Busch that features transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.

"[145] In an October 2017 interview with Howard Stern, Ritchie put an end to the speculation, saying that he had never intended to run for Senate, adding rhetorically, "Who couldn't figure that out?".

[41] On July 18, 2024, Ritchie performed his song "American Bad Ass" for the 2024 Republican National Convention with modified lyrics to show his support for Trump.