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Deliverance
09/08/2003 8:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Dan Leroy
It's not going to make Eminem haters happy to admit it, but in a strong year for Southern hip-hop, the best album from below the Mason-Dixon line so far comes from Shady's country cousin. Forget the chatter about Bubba Sparxxx being an "Ugly" one-hit wonder--on his sophomore set, the rural Georgia MC ain't just spinning his pickup wheels. A big reason is the inspired production of Timbaland and Organized Noize: the former concocts bumpkin beats that are as much twangers as bangers, with fiddles and harmonica two-stepping around the funk, while the latter team adds drum-and-bass kinetics to the punky riff of "Back In The Mud." But Bubba matches that brilliance with his own soul-searching and fanfare for the common redneck, like "the product of a bad hand and a young mother" Sparxxx salutes in the standout "Comin' Round." "Who is there to speak for him but Bubba?" the burly MC demands; it's Eminem's defiant celebration of white-trash culture, minus the nihilism. Offering musical redemption for the New South's old hang-ups, Deliverance delivers.
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