“Blue-eyed soul.” A term coined to indicate the white members of the 1960s soul revolution, who sang with just as much intensity and emotional content as their black compatriots without mimicry, a term that can now be accurately applied to a new white artist in a new genre.
That artist is Bubba Sparxxx, the Georgia-based rapper whose new album Deliverance is nothing short of a revelation. Eminem might be the best white rapper in the world, but the best blue-eyed hip-hop, at least currently, is coming from Bubba.
Not to demean the man, but there was no indication that Bubba Sparxxx was going to make an album this good as the follow-up to his good-enough debut, Dark Days, Bright Nights, from which the single “Ugly” broke out. Like that infectious single, Timbaland, the genius whose spirit guides and informs many of the most memorable beats in hip-hop today, produces most of Deliverance.
With Bubba, Timbaland has created a mixture that seems both obvious and revolutionary. Much in line with his self-described “hick-hop” persona, Timbaland surrounds Bubba with tracks built around the sounds of country music, like fiddles, harmonicas, insistent handclaps and — on the ear-shatteringly original “Comin’ Round” — a fully operational bluegrass sample around which the track revolves.
Even when Timbaland is absent, Organized Noize — the production team behind OutKast and Goodie Mob — is at the helm. When combined with Bubba’s lazily prodigious flow and rhyming ability, the result is intoxicating.
Unlike previous experiments that attempted to mash hip-hop beats together with more rootsy instrumentation, never does Deliverance seem smirking, tacky or awkward. This is who Bubba Sparxxx is, and the music is handled with the proper nuance and sophistication.
Perhaps the expertise with which the album’s sounds are created is not the sole reason for the success here where others have failed. The album’s first half is a series of deeply personal reflections upon the burdens Bubba — who proves himself here to be as thoughtful as that more-famous white-boy MC from up north — finds himself carrying, both as a disaffected, young, rural white male and as a disaffected, young, rural white male in the predominantly African-American world of hip-hop.
He acknowledges and reckons with his and others’ fears of appropriation and exploitation and wrestles with his own insecurities and failures with refreshing frankness. “Jimmy Mathis,” ostensibly a great party track with a harmonica-and-handclaps foundation, finds Bubba calling out his own father, by name, to acknowledge his son’s value. On “She Tried,” he spins a tale of failed romance between two flawed people over a weeping fiddle background.
On the album’s title track, probably the best piece on here, he centers a meditation on his status in life around a guitar-driven, near-gospel chorus that celebrates his country existence while simultaneously grasping for the answers he has yet to find. As catchy and affecting musically as it is lyrically, the song “Deliverance” ranks among this year’s best, hip-hop or otherwise.
On the second half of Deliverance, the tone gets lighter though no less memorable. In fact, despite the fact that the previously serious nature of the lyrics gives way to a less ambiguous series of rough-riding party anthems, the second part of this collection is arguably stronger and more consistent musically than the previous half.
Justin Timberlake guests on the gently thumping “Hootnanny,” on which Bubba’s vocals particularly shine and Timbaland outdoes himself with a skittering beat guaranteed to rock every block. Sleepy Brown provides able guest work on the horn-driven “Like it Or Not,” and then there’s “Back In The Mud,” a delirious, punk-funk house-rocker where Bubba stands firm: “Back in the mud and I confess / I’m so happy here / Nothing you could do to make me stay away.” It’s a perfect ending to this journey of identity.
Bubba Sparxxx doesn’t run away from his status as a Southern white man, a group that continues to be misrepresented and mocked in a shockingly unabashed way; nor does he mistakenly embrace outmoded or offensive stereotypes and symbols (like the legacy of the Confederacy) in a grab at appearing “authentic.” He embraces his roots, his country heritage and imagery of his “fishin’ pole and bottle of ‘shine” with pride and measured reason.
This is not a joke, nor is it too ponderously serious to not be any fun. This is blue-eyed hip-hop, hip-hop from a distinctly white perspective that adds to the genre in a substantive, unique and (hopefully) lasting way. Bubba Sparxxx may be searching for Deliverance, but he’s already found his voice — a voice that did not previously exist in hip-hop and will hopefully continue to be strong.
Grade: A
willhaynes • Aug 31, 2013 at 2:29 pm
Another comment!
willhaynes • Aug 31, 2013 at 2:08 pm
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