Bubba Sparxxx is doing his "hillbilly dance," and he really wants you to enjoy it. Really enjoy it.
Nearly each track on Sparxxx's LP, Deliverance, includes some sort
of southern melody mixed in with
the beat. "Jimmy Mathis" loops a harmonica melody while Sparxxx spits out rhymes, including the one about the hillbilly dance.
"Comin' Round" features a fiddle with Sparxxx's southern drawl rap, while executive producer Timbaland does some serious knob turning and cut-up beat cut-and-pasting to try saving the track. However, although Timbaland tries to "Work It" with Sparxxx, the whole affair sounds too forced.
After a peculiar rock "Warrant Interlude," on "Warrant," Sparxxx raps "I am disgusted/Because I can't ever make what I think/ Translate into what I say." If this is true, maybe Sparxxx is in the wrong business.
The album's title track is the best song on the album, featuring a signature Timbaland beat, while the entire track is more of a dance song than a rap song, with Sparxxx rapping for about one minute and 30 seconds of five minutes that the track runs.
The next few tracks on the album blend together, but another standout track is "Like It Or Not," with its bouncing beat and a stylized horn section that blends well into the track.
Although Sparxxx's rhymes may not be the best in the biz, he's got the right producers turning the right knobs that help save him from turning this album into one that should have been left floating down the Mississippi.
Reach the reporter at steven.ganczaruk@asu.edu.
