Third Time's the Charm for Sparxxx

"Balance was the plan on this record," rapper Bubba Sparxxx says of his third CD, The Charm, the first on OutKast MC Big Boi's Purple Ribbon label. "My first record had a high-energy club sound. The second was more reflective. I wanted to bring the two worlds together."

The first single from the collection, due April 4th, "Ms. New Booty," a strip-club anthem produced by Mr. Collipark and featuring the Ying Yang Twins, is a shout-out to clubland. "If I had one regret about [2003's] Deliverance," says Sparxxx, "is that I'm a club-going-type person. And I missed that, going to the club and hearing my song play. So I vowed to myself I'd never make another record where it didn't have club shit on there. Period."

But on the Big Boi-produced "Ain't Life Grand," Sparxxx shows his contemplative side, rhyming about his hardscrabble childhood in rural Georgia. "I got meat and potatoes on the new album as well. I got substance on there," he says. "Just think about the growth that any person goes through between the age of twenty-four and the age of twenty-eight, you know what I'm saying?" Other heavier tracks include "Runaway" and "The Other Side."

Introduced as the protege of Nineties hip-hop super-producer Timbaland -- Tim produced most of the tracks on Sparxxx's previous releases, including his 2001 breakthrough single "Ugly" -- the rapper worked mainly with Big Boi this time around. And Sparxxx found that the OutKast superstar had a very different style. "Whereas with Tim, it was a lot more hands-on," he says, with Big Boi "it was time to stand on my own two feet. He's just been there to provide guidance."

Timbaland did shape the sound of one track on The Charm, "Hey (A Little Gratitude)." "I just wanted to show there was no bad blood between us," Sparxxx says. "We still have a brotherly bond."