I still remember the first time I heard Bubba Sparxxx‘s “Deliverance”. It was in college, walking by a field where some kids were tossing a football around, and playing the song on a speaker. The track immediately caught my attention: a folksy, soulful rap track with a haunting melody that sounded like nothing else at the time.
When I finally learned the track was by Bubba Sparxxx, to say I was surprised was an understatement. I had heard “Ugly” as it was played on MTV, and it was not my taste, to say the least. I knew labels were trying to find a new Eminem, and Bubba was being presented as a Southern version of the Detroit rap star, but like so many other attempts, it seemed the labels were churning out another one-hit wonder (remember Asher Roth?) instead of a future super-star.
Hearing “Deliverance”, I started to think I was wrong. THIS was a song – a blending of real country and bluegrass with hip-hop that no one else was doing. If I was being won over by the track, certainly millions of others who had been on the fence about Bubba would to, right?
Sadly the answer was no. The album failed to generate the sales or radio play that “Ugly” received. Bubba (and his producer Timbaland) were way ahead of their time with this one. Now country/rap hybrid music is a big deal (and almost all of it is subpar compared to this song). As the album is celebrating its twentieth anniversary, perhaps it’s not too late for the song to have a resurgence and become the hit it should have been back in 2003?
Do your part to help this song go gold, and give it a stream here!
The Indy Review 