Kid Rock

About

Kid Rock (real name Robert James Ritchie) is an American musician best known for hard country rock songs like "Bawitdaba," "Cowboy," and "Picture" featuring Sheryl Crow. Additionally, Kid Rock has been active in American politics. He has teased a run for the United States Senate and is an outspoken conservative and supporter of Donald Trump.

History

Robert James Ritchie was born January 17th, 1971 in Michigan.^[1] He began his musical career as a white rapper in the late 80s, and signed with Jive Records at the age of 17 in 1990. After a decade gaining local fame in Detroit, Michigan, he released Devil Without a Cause in 1997, marking his national breakthrough. The album sold 14 million copies and was spurred on by the single "Bawitdaba" (shown below).

Ritchie played with other styles during his musical career. One of his most successful singles was "Picture," a ballad with fellow country pop star Sheryl Crow (shown below, top left). Other hits include "Cowboy" (shown below, top right), "Only God Knows Why (shown below, bottom left), and "American Badass," which also served as the theme song for WWE wrestler The Undertaker during his "American Badass" gimmick.

Reputation

Ritchie has been outspoken about celebrating the American south. He displayed the confederate flag at his concerts in the early 2000s. He is a conservative, but identifies more with libertarianism, saying he agrees with liberal positions on social issues such as abortion, drugs, and gay marriage, but is fiscally conservative. He supported George W. Bush and the military invasion of Iraq, supported Barack Obama in 2008, Mitt Romney in 2012, and ultimately Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election after endorsing Ben Carson in the Republican primary. In July of 2017, he fueled speculation that he would run for the United States Senate in the 2018 mid-term elections.^[2] He set up a website, kidrockforsenate.com,^[3] evidently supporting his run. He later clarified that the stunt was a joke, and donated the money he'd raised to a voter registration group. He has met with Donald Trump several times at the White House.

Online Presence

Kid Rock has a strong online presence, with over 5.99 million Facebook likes^[4] and 562,000 Twitter followers.^[5] When it appeared he was running for Senate, a subreddit devoted to his campaign, /r/The_Kid,^[6] gained over 500 subscribers.

Related Memes

Hey Authority

Hey, Authority refers to a photograph of Kid Rock holding up a middle finger at the camera outside of a courtroom in April 2016. Short after it was posted to his Twitter and Facebook accounts, the rock musician's petulant anti-authoritarian message went viral online and spawned a photo fad of various individuals mimicking his gesture with the caption "hey, authority."

On April 12th, 2016, Kid Rock posted an image of himself smiling and sticking up his middle finger while standing outside of a courtroom, prefaced with the caption that reads "hey, authority." Within hours of the post on Twitter and Facebook, Kid Rock's photograph began racking up thousands of likes and shares; in just a little over two weeks, the image garnered more than 4,800 retweets and 8,500 likes on Twitter, as well as over 55,000 likes, 4,800 shares and 1,500 comments on Facebook.

That same day, American standup comedian Joe Mande tweeted a parody image of himself awkwardly sticking up a middle finger while standing next to his office nameplate, followed by American comedian Andy Richter's tweet featuring the Chihuahua dog (as seen in the "Sleep Tight Pupper" meme) with the caption "hey, authority."

Kid Rock, Ted Nugent, Sarah Palin White House Photo

Kid Rock, Ted Nugent, Sarah Palin White House Photo refers to an image of musicians Kid Rock and Ted Nugent, former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, Shemane Deziel, and Audrey Berry posing next to President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of The White House. The photo was mocked on Twitter after its publication.

On April 19th, 2017, the White House's dinner guests were Kid Rock, Ted Nugent, Sarah Palin, Shemane Deziel, and Audrey Berry. According to a tweet by Jake Tapper,^[1] the first post to include the photo online, Rock, Nugent, Deziel, and Berry were guests of Sarah Palin (shown below).

Soon after the photo was posted, people began to make jokes about it, lampooning the cartoonish and celebrity-focused nature about the Trump administration. One popular tweet by @bobbyfinger photoshopped the picture to make it appear as a CBS sitcom (shown below). The photo and ensuing response was covered by Twitter Moments, USA Today, Consequence of Sound, and more.

Music Modernization Act Photo

On October 11th, 2018, Ritchie visited the White House to discuss the Music Modernization Act with Kanye West and Donald Trump. Political reporter Eamon Javers tweeted a photo of the Rock entering the White House (shown below).

The photo prompted jokes online. User @ditzkoff joked that the image was in opposition to the "Hey Authority" photo, gaining over 140 retweets (shown below, left). User @atrupar joked Kid Rock was being considered for Attorney General, gaining over 80 retweets (shown below, right). The jokes were covered by The Daily Dot.^[7]

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Search Interest

External References