Bubba Sparxxx: Deliverance : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Bubba Sparxxx's single "Ugly" -- a frenetic riff on Missy Elliott's "Get Ur Freak On" -- was a one-off hip-hop smash in 2001, probably before anyone realized Sparxxx was a husky-sized white dude from rural Georgia. There isn't much chance of mistaken identity on his second album, Deliverance. Bubba works more of his hillbilly roots into the music, notably on "Jimmy Mathis," where he represents the sticks hard over a shit-kicking harmonica loop. Producer Timbaland sounds like he's almost cracking himself up, especially on "Comin Round," where he samples an obscure hillbilly band and somehow makes it funky. A few of the honky-tonk touches -- such as the corny country crooning on "My Baby's Gone" -- feel like gimmicks. But Sparxxx's lyrics are no shtick: On "Nowhere," a song about growing up broke and isolated, he asks, "Can you relate to five kids/Six fish sticks on the plate?" Ironically, Bubba seems most comfortable rhyming over the OutKast-flavored tracks by Organized Noize. Deliverance may verge into Hee Haw! territory, but its heart is in Stankonia.

NATHAN BRACKETT
(RS 932, October 2, 2003)