New S-O-U-T-H!!  KRS-ONE has gone on record to say that Eminem and Dr. Dre are the physical manifestation of Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream Speech”. And as an urban example, KRS’ comparison is certainly valid; as who could have envisioned five-years ago that a white kid from the trailer parks of Rock City would team up with one of Compton’s OG’s to become pop music’s biggest sensation?  Yet, after doing the math, perhaps the union of Georgia’s Bubba Sparxxx and Virginia’s (both states are somewhat known for their histories of racial tension) beat-maestro Timbaland is an equally compelling argument.  And as Bubba Sparxxx laments on “Take A Load Off” (“where I come from white boys ain’t lame dawg”) he obviously feels likewise. 

No longer keeping it “Polo and New Balance” Bubba strips Deliverance of the excess that plagued his debut Dark Days, Bright Nights.  Even the more commercially palatable productions Timbaland offers up are further hastened by a willingness to let his guard down.  The jovial shuffle of “Back In The Mud” is fashioned into a celebratory ode that commemorates all things below the Mason Dixon line and with the moonshine soaked “Comin’ Round” Bubba attempts to justify his career path “as long as daddy knows that his son does sweat/the same as he did for that uncut check” and even recalls lost love with the regretful “She Tried” w/ Ryan Tedder.

But Bubba’s maturation is best exemplified by “Nowhere” where he fights being boxed into comparisons with the H.W.I.C. (“cause Eminem’s incredible/but did I really have to say this/for ya’ll to leave my soul at rest and add my to your playlist”) and “Deliverance” where Bubba details his perceived “one hit wonder” status, his labels hot and cold treatment and even a bout with depression with one telling verse “then they start to question whether you a true talent/or just a redneck substance abuse addict/so then you hideaway just to try find your way/and now there back to calling you 200 times a day.” 

Though Bubba is no longer dependant on Tim’s production or reliant on pig slop gimmicks; the very personal journey and concepts he reveals on Deliverance are every bit as moving. Timbaland can still make any mic sound nice (“navigating another one of Timmy’s super sounds”) and he scoured the southern regions in search of the most countrified samples he could locate and envelopes them around his synthesized strings and procussion.  With “Comin’ Round” Tim lifts a vocal sample from the Yonder Mountain String Band (now that’s digging) and on “Nowhere” adds an operatic background courtesy of the Georgia choir to what sounds like the original demo of Justin Timberlake’s “Cry Me A River”—Timberlake even swings thru to repay Tim and Bubba for their contributions to his runaway smash of a debut and “Hootnanny” could do for Bubba what “Where Is The Love” did for Black Eyed Peas if pushed right.  Throw in an extra heaping of Organized Noize, who chip in “Back In The Mud” and “Like It Or Not,” which easily compares to their early work with Outkast and Goodie Mob and you have the best futuristic hick shit money can buy. 

While Bubba’s debut, Dark Days, Bright Nights, made him a household name thanks to the breakout single and video for “Ugly” it was a rushed effort that capitalized on the success of that single.  But with Deliverance, Bubba and Timmy have tweaked and twerked everything in its right place and the result is one of 2003′ most well-rounded, if overlooked, efforts.