Bubba Sparxxx

Bubba Sparxxx (born Warren Anderson Mathis, in tiny Lagrange, GA) is the Ronnie Van Zant of rap. Like the scrappy late singer of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Mathis brings his background as a white, working-class Southern man into a popular new arena -- in his case, hip-hop. Some critics initially dismissed Mathis' rural, country-tinged rap, just as some had scorned Skynyrd's gritty mix of blues, country, and '70s hard rock. Some people even summoned the tired old demeaning "redneck" term. But it's not lack of smarts that mars Bubba's first album; it's lack of a coherent vision and consistent delivery. He's not the most elegant rapper, but his topics -- and the dazzling production of Timbaland (Jay-Z, Missy Elliott) -- make up for his sometimes clunky rhymes. Bubba's concerns are as valid as Van Zant's, and when he lashes out at old prejudices about the poor, white South or conveys the fears of threatened factory workers, he joins a long line of proud, Southern-rock provocateurs. Dark Days delivered a hit with "Ugly" (#15 pop; #6 rap), but some pundits wrote off the Bubba/Timbaland partnership as a lesser clone of the Eminem/Dr. Dre dream team. It was a superficial comparison, but Bubba's hayseed video for "Ugly" also only reinforced the white-trash stereotypes his songs rose above.

Deliverance was a big step forward. The rapping is more assertive, the album more coherent. Bubba acknowledges the country and blues roots of his hip-hop without resorting to the disingenuous overstatement of Kid Rock. In "Nowhere," Bubba offers an allegory about coming from a rural backwater over a spooky mix of house-music vocals and hip-hop ambience. "She Tried" is the tale of a guilt-ridden cheater told over ancient Appalachian fiddles and contemporary beats. Timbaland incorporates Irish whistle, acoustic guitars, banjo, and pedal steel, but the instruments don't come off as mere novelty. On Deliverance, Bubba writes from his experiences growing up in the dirty South of the 1990s, but he also proves that he is, first and foremost, a legitimate rapper. (MARK KEMP)

From 2004's The New Rolling Stone Album Guide