The Polyfuze Method is Kid Rock's second album and the Even Better Sequel to Grits Sandwiches for Breakfast.
The Polyfuze Method is noted for its Psychedelic Hip Hop sound and showed the influence of psychedelic drugs, including LSD and mushrooms, on Kid Rock's music. It also makes extensive use of Sampling, as well as live instrumentation. During the recording for the song "The Cramper", Kid Rock hired a flute player to play a solo on the track. "Killin' Brain Cells" features Kid Rock playing bass and electric guitar solos, and also features a harmonica solo.
A lot of the lyrics feature Kid Rock humorously, and profanely, discussing sex, alcoholism, drug use, and partying. Pop culture, fast food and social deconstruction are other topics.
Compared to his first album, The Polyfuze Method saw better reviews from critics, and helped Kid Rock develop a following in Detroit which consisted of "white kids who listened to Gangsta Rap and dropped acid", and also featured a more diverse and experimental sound, drawing from Psychedelic Hip Hop, funk, rock, and more.
This album is also where "I Am the Bullgod", one of Kid Rock's best known songs, made its first appearance, though only on the vinyl, until 1997, when it appeared on the reissue.
The vinyl and 1993 CD releases had different track listings and were missing tracks that appeared on one release, but not the other.
In 1997, an Updated Re Release called The Polyfuze Method Revisited was put out, which combined all of the tracks from the vinyl and previous CD release, and added a previously unreleased song, "Rain Check", and an remix of the intro, "Fred", which was a sample of a man talking about seeing God after dropping acid.
The EP Kid Rock put out the same year as this album's original release, Fire It Up, featured alternate versions of "I Am the Bullgod" and "My Oedipus Complex", tracks from The Polyfuze Method and a track from the sessions that was never released elsewhere: a cover of Hank Williams Jr.'s "A Country Boy Can Survive".
Tracks
There were three different releases of the album, each with a different track listing. The Polyfuze Method Revisited CD from 1997 is the most complete of the three, containing all of the tracks from the vinyl and previous CD releases.
- Fred 0:52 or 0:37 (the reissue has a remix and different samples)
- Killin' Brain Cells 3:55
- Prodigal Son 5:18
- The Cramper 4:12
- Three Sheets to the Wind 4:43
- I Am the Bullgod 4:51 (appears on the vinyl and 1997 CD, but not the 1993 CD)
- Fuck U Blind 3:55
- Desperate-Rado 4:25 (does not appear on the vinyl)
- Back from the Dead 4:43 (not on the vinyl)
- My Oedipus Complex 5:35
- Balls in Your Mouth 3:48
- Rollin' on the Island (feat. Wes Chill and Prince Vince) 7:47 (appears on the vinyl and 1997 CD, but not the 1993 CD)
- Rain Check 1:14 (only appears on the 1997 CD)
- Trippin' with Dick Vitale 4:07 (not on the vinyl)
- TV Dinner 0:30 (not on the vinyl)
- Pancake Breakfast 3:02
- Blow Me 2:31 (not on the vinyl)
- In So Deep 1:59 (not on the vinyl)
- U Don't Know Me 5:24
- Untitled 0:37 (on the 1997 CD, this is just the 1993 version of "Fred")
Tropes
- All Men Are Perverts: On "Desperate-Rado", Rock is a horny cowboy who fantasizes about Annie Oakley, says that he's "got a cock like a cactus" and "if it's alive, I'll fuck it". This also applies to his sheep and horse.
- Alter-Ego Acting: "My Oedipus Complex" is a song about Kid Rock's fractured relationship with his father, in which he alternates between rapping/singing as himself and rapping/singing as his dad (who is being put "on trial" for his parenting skills), and the verses are split between the characters of "Dad" and "Son". "Son" complains that his father projected all his stress upon him, "Dad" put down "Son's" relationship with his black girlfriend (referring to Kid Rock's real-life then-girlfriend, Kelley) and "Son" accuses "Dad" of only caring about money and having no affection towards his family. "Dad" responds that he was trying to raise his family the best he could and that he grew up poor, so he worked to put himself through college and later to provide for his family, that he always loved and cared for his son, but now he's "hated like a devil, and for why, I don't know."
- Bestiality Is Depraved: "Desperate-Rado":
- I take a peek at the sheep and they run away nervous
- Long nights by the fire, me and Trigger. Go figure.
- Boastful Rap: Many, but most notably on "Killin' Brain Cells", where he backs up his bravado by playing every instrument he mentions in his lyrics.
- Bookends: The Revisited CD from 1997 begins and ends with the same sample of a man talking about seeing god after dropping acid. The first track is a remix exclusive to the reissue, while track 20 is the original version of the intro.
- Call-Back: "Trippin' With Dick Vitale" and "Pancake Breakfast" both contain the lyric, "Got the same birthday as Thomas Crapper" (an English plumber, he's the reason why many people today call toilets "the Crapper", for his innovations in regards to the "water closet").
- The line "Roll it up, take a hit, and then pass it/ That's how we do when we roll down Gratiot" (from "Back From the Dead") reappears in "Rollin' On the Island".
- On "Killin' Brain Cells": "I'm the best in the motherfucking Midwest, because there's no contest / For the pimp, I'm the pimp of the nation"
- On "Back from the Dead": 'Bitches, they think I'm sexist, but all I want, baby, is your grits for breakfast"
- "Back From the Dead" also contains a sample of the Title Drop from "Yodelin' in the Valley".
- "U Don't Know Me" also contains a reference to Grits Sandwiches For Breakfast and the song "Wax the Booty".
- Epic Rocking: "Rollin' On the Island" is 7 minutes long.
- Face on the Cover: The first of his albums to do so, as Grits Sandwiches for Breakfast featured a cartoon cover, depicting Kid Rock, who then had a flat-top hairdo, being tossed out of a soul food restaurant by Too $hort (one of the main producers, credited for "discovering" Kid Rock). Both the 1993 and 1997 editions have different photographs of Kid Rock after he cut off his flat top. The Polyfuze Method Revisited had a more recent photo of Kid Rock, depicting him with long hair and wearing his trademark hat, looking close to how he looked on the cover of Devil Without a Cause, which was released a year after Revisited and had a re-recorded version of "I Am the Bullgod" from this album.
- Heavy Metal: "In So Deep"
- Intercourse with You: Played with on "Fuck U Blind". One verse on discusses a girl who wears a Public Enemy shirt as part of her image, but doesn't actually like rap, and while ultimately the song is about sex, it's not a seduction song. (Not to mention, the aggressive guitar riffs and Beastie Boys-style rapping aren't very soothing.)
- But the re-recorded version, on the other hand, which appeared on The History of Rock and featured a funk sound and newly written, sung lyrics, plays this trope absolutely straight.
- Miniscule Rocking: "Rain Check" is 1 minute and 14 seconds, and "In So Deep" is only 2 minutes long. There are also a couple of 30 second interludes.
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Missing Episode: This album is unlikely to be reissued or appear on any streaming service, due to extensive sample clearance issues. Of the many samples cleared later for the 1997 reissue, the one that is known to have gotten cleared is the sample of Butthole Surfers' "Sweet Loaf" on "Pancake Breakfast", because Gibby Haynes revealed that the reason Kid Rock has a cowriting credit on the band's 2001 single "The Shame of Life" was because he agreed to clear the sample only if Kid Rock wrote the chorus for one of his songs as payment. - Music Is Politics: On "Back from the Dead": "My first LP wasn't pushed for shit / So Jive Records, yo, go and suck a fat dick"
- New Sound Album: Grits Sandwiches was straightforward hip-hop. The Polyfuze Method is mostly Psychedelic Hip Hop.
- Ode to Intoxication: Throughout, but especially "3 Sheets to the Wind":Never been questioned by the FBI, though I tried every method just to get high
- Psychedelic Hip Hop: The album features heavy use of Sampling, lyrics about partying and tripping on various drugs (including LSD, mushrooms and 'tussin). It's very reminiscent of Paul's Boutique.
- Rap Rock: Several tracks, including "Prodigal Son", "Fuck U Blind" and more. Live, funky instrumentation is on display throughout a lot of the album.
- Record Producer: Kid Rock himself, with some help from D-Square and Mike E. Clark. According to Clark, Kid Rock made his own beats and did his own turntable scratching and DJ'ing. Additionally, many of the instruments played on the album were played by Kid Rock himself.
- Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated:Back from the Dead, second LP, here we go
Comin' at ya from the R-O-M-E-O - Sampling: One of the best and most artistic uses of sampling. Kid Rock constructed a lot of the album utilizing samples, including funk artists like Sly and the Family Stone, Kool & the Gang, and James Brown, classic rock bands like The Doors, Led Zeppelin, and Pink Floyd, alternative rock bands like The Smiths and Butthole Surfers, fellow rappers like Kool Moe Dee, Public Enemy, and Run–D.M.C., and more
. Not to mention cartoons (i.e. Looney Tunes), movies (i.e. Goodfellas), radio (i.e. The Howard Stern Show) and television. - Southern Rock: "I Am the Bullgod" mixes this with rap, funk and Psychedelic Rock.
- "My Oedipus Complex" also has elements, although not as prominately featured as when the song was re-recorded for The History of Rock, in what many fans consider to be the definitive and significantly better version, which had more Blues Rock elements and entirely live instrumentation, whereas the Polyfuze version features a drum machine and more of a hip-hop style production.
- Take That!:
- "Killin' Brain Cells" disses New Kids on the Block, Paula Abdul, Milli Vanilli, and Vanilla Ice through sampling. Brief portions of "You Got It (The Right Stuff)", "Straight Up", "Girl You Know It's True", and "Ice Ice Baby" are interrupted by a sample of Ice Cube saying "Turn off that bullshit!"
- Title Drop: From "Trippin' With Dick Vitale":Bugs Bunny Sample: "What's cookin'?"
I like bean burritos from Taco Bell
Daffy Duck sample: "And that's not all!"
I like trippin' on acid with Dick Vitale!
