Dark Days, Bright Nights

By Josh Tyrangiel Monday, Nov. 05, 2001
    • If rap is going to crawl out of its current rut of shiny jewels and bland rhymes, it's going to need new voices. That's why the debut of Bubba Sparxxx, a white 24-year-old farm boy from LaGrange, Ga., holds such promise. On Ugly and Bubba Talk ("Y'all don't know me at all/I say the same thing but slower than y'all"), Sparxxx plays the country cousin to great effect, and aided by Timbaland's near-perfect production, it's fun to dance to as well. On other tracks, notably Well Water, Bubba dilutes his uniqueness with the usual boring hip-hop lexicon ("If it's beef you searching for/I run with poachers who hunt cattle.") More Bubba, less beef.