Deliverance

Album: Deliverance (2003)
Charted: 55 101
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Songfacts®:

  • Bubba Sparxxx grew up in rural Georgia a few hours from where the 1972 movie Deliverance was shot. That film etched in a stereotype of the backwoods hillbilly that even decades later left an imprint on folks in remote parts of Georgia. It's not where you would expect a rapper to come from, but Sparxxx listened to all the hip-hop he could growing up and became a good enough rapper to earn a label deal with Interscope, which teamed him with Timbaland, a producer at the top of the game.

    Much of Sparxxx' material was based on his upbringing and unlikely rise as a hillbilly rapper. His first single, "Ugly," is a celebration of his culture; "Deliverance," the title track to his second album, is more reflective, but still showered with pride. The title calls out to the movie but also relates to deliverance in the biblical sense, meaning salvation.
  • Timbaland and his associate Jimmy Douglass wrote this song with Sparxxx, and Timbaland produced the track. Timbaland also lends his vocals on the chorus and appears in the video.
  • In this song, Sparxxx recons with his struggle to stay sober, and with the perception that he's just a gimmick:

    Then they start to question whether you a true talent
    Or just a redneck substance abuse addict


    When Sparxxx made some money off his first album, he used a lot of it to fuel his drug habit, which later developed into an opioid addiction. He claimed that there were times when he was near death, and only stayed alive through lucky breaks. After the album, he broke ranks with Timbaland and landed a hit with "Ms. New Booty," produced by Mr. Collipark and featuring the Ying Yang Twins. Once again, its success enabled his addictions. He took a few years off, during which time he did stints in rehab. His music career ramped up again in 2013 when he released an album called Pain Management.
  • The music video was directed by Bryan Barber, who also directed the 2006 film Idlewild, starring André 3000 and Big Boi of Outkast. It has a chain gang theme, possibly inspired by the 2000 film O Brother, Where Art Thou? One of Bubba's fellow convicts is played by the pro football player Steve Herndon, who was with the Denver Broncos at the time. He and Sparxxx grew up together.

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