With one gold
selling debut and a critically acclaimed sophomore
album under his belt Purple Ribbon Recording
artist Bubba Sparxxx is one of the South most
talented MCs. Over the years Bubba lyrical skills
have earned Georgia native the respect of his
peers and fickle rap fans all over the world. Yet
despite his success in the rap game Bubba remains
true to his humble beginnings that is the heart of
rural America.
After releasing two critically acclaimed albums
Bubba Sparxxx is hoping that his third outing, The
Charm will be the one that brings him the platinum
plaques he so richly deserves. |
 Down-South.com: What's
your name both real and stage?
Bubba: My real name is Warren Anderson Mathis. My
stage name is Bubba Sparxxx.
Down-South.com: Where are you from?
Bubba: I was born and raised in LaGrange, GA, a
little town about 65 miles west of Atlanta.
Down-South.com: Tell me about LaGrange?
Bubba: Man, there's LaGrange and then there's Troop
County. LaGrange is about 35,000 people but in Troop
County there's about 65 or 70,000 people. I actually
grew up in Troop County, but I always say that I'm
from LaGrange because if you grew up in Troop County
then Lagrange is your city. Lagrange is basically a
mill town, it's driven mostly by the textile
industry. A company called Milligan has about seven
different plants to do different things down there
and that's kinda the financial driving force behind
the community.
Down-South.com: Do they mostly offer minimum wage jobs?
Bubba: Well you know it's just like any plant, you
gotta a lotta differmt
levels. You got your entry level positions like
running machines, cleaning
up and stuff like that that pay a little of nothing
then you people who are on up in upper management
who are doig pretty well, but other than that to say
that Milligan is definitely a big, big part of the
LaGrange economy is a huge understatement. A lotta
people in LaGrange work for Milligan, Milligan put a
lotta food on a lotta people's table down there.
Down-South.com: How did you grow up? I gather from your music
that you were working class, is that true?
Bubba: Yeah, yeah, working class 100% man. Really I
was upper lower class. (laughs). My pops did
everything. He was a school bus driver. My mama
worked as a cashier at a grocery store. My pops did
a lotta farming also. Framing is also real big down
in that area.
Down-South.com: As a child what are your earliest memories of
growing up in LaGrange?
Bubba: My earliest memories was just of being a
young kid out the country man, there wasn't really a
lot going on looking back on it. At the time it
seemed like it was a lot going on. My brothers and
sisters really didn't have much of nothing, but we
made the most outa what we had and it being a lotta
love in the house. There are two different types of
rich folks in the world. It's those that are rich
financially -they have things financially, but love
ain't that prevalent in the household. Then there
are people that don't have much but love is very
prevalent in the household. And love was in our
household. What we lack in material things we made
up for it in love, you can believe that.
Down-South.com: Tell me what kind of music did your parents
listen to?
Bubba: My folks really wasn't musically oriented
people. They didn't really play a lot of records.
Country music was really the music that was on the
radio that was played in the house. My brother
listen to heavy metal like Iron Maiden, ACDC and
tuff like that, but as far as my parents they didn't
really listen to much music. They were the kinda
people that worked 15 to 18 hours a day, seven days
a week to make ends meet so they really wasn't time
for nothing else and what little time there was it
wasn't gonna be nothing about no music. I didn't
come from a musical family. Now this is ironic, one
of my brother that I didn't grow up with. He was one
of my pop's son from a previous marriage. He
actually lived up in the Atlanta area and he was a
fan of the funk. He listened to people like
Parlament and all that stuff. He would come down
every once and a while and play those records and
that might have been an influence on me too.
Down-South.com: how did you come in contact with hip hop?
Bubba: I had a neighbor that lived up the road from
me. And every summer he would come live with his
Grandma. His name was DeWayne Hollingsworth -he was
a Black kid. He was the closest neighbor that I had
even though he lived about a mile down the road.
Every summer he would come visit his Grandma who
lived the house down the road. When he would come he
would bring mix tapes. At the time I thought that
they were ust some tapes of different songs that he
had recorded or whatever. But looking back on it I
realize that they were mix tapes...some early mix
tapes that had come from somewhere off the east
Coast. They had Eric B & Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, EPMD
on them. And we would just sit and listen to those
tapes until those tapes busted. I mean I listened to
it constantly like it was the preacher's sermon.
That was my first introduction to hip hop man and I
was head over heels..just all about hip hop music. I
just loved the rawness of the expression of it. I
think that it affected people differently. Most kids
that heard it, no matter where they were from,
wanted to mimic what was going on in the music. But
to me I just loved the rawness of it and how they
were telling their story. Me I just wanted to use
the rawness of it as a vehicle to tell my story. And
that's how you get an album like Deliverance. I
wanted people to understand that a lotta of the same
things go on in rural areas and urban areas in every
walk of life. It's just a different type of place,
but the same struggle is going on everywhere. I just
wanted to present that struggle as it related to me.
Down-South.com: When did you say okay, I'm going to stop
listening to hip hop and start being a participant
in this music?
Bubba: I had dabbled in writing rhymes all through
late middle school all
through high school, but football was my main focus.
To this day football is my first love. That's like
being in the South football is very a important part
of our culture, especially high school football. But
when I graduated high school and I kinda realize
that I didn't have a whole lotta options. I didn't
wanna start working at the mill. College really
wasn't a viable option for me at the time. So I
really started to take music seriously. Very few
people knew that I rapped. The people that did were
like hey man, I think that you can really do that.
You got some real good talent when it comes to that
stuff. I started dabbling and I saved up enough
money to go into the studio, me and some friends
went into the studio to record some stuff in the
studio when I was like 18. It was awful, just like
most people's fist experience in the studio. But I
did feel like that I shined enough to where I was
like man if we can figure out all of the other
aspects of it as far as productions and putting song
together then I think I can do this. I liked how it
sounded and I liked how I put words together and how
it sounded to my ear. It didn't sound a whole lot
different from what the real people that was putting
out music. That was encouraging man.
Down-South.com: How did you get to Athens?
Bubba: Well as football was concerned I was a very
good high school football player and I had some
opportunities to go play college ball but you know
my best friend, a guy by the name of Steven Herndon,
was a high school All-American. He played right next
to me he played football for the University of
Georgia. And that's kinda where my standards were. I
was like if I can't go somewhere like Georgia of
Alabama then I'm really, really barking up the wrong
tree. If I couldn't be great at something then I
wasn't gonna try and pretend to be good. If I
couldn't be great at something and achieve something
on its highest level then I just wasn't interested.
So he got his football scholarship to the University
of Georgia in Athens. That's where Athens comes into
the story. I had been in LaGrange after we had
graduated for about a year or two and was really
headed down the wrong path. I started to get
involved in illegal things and really just not
living right period. I didn't have any plans. My
best Steven Herndon said man I got this apartment up
her and the scholarship's paying for it, I got this
extra room man why don't you just come up here. It's
a college town and it'll be just a breath of fresh
air for you. It'll be a fresh start. I think that
you would really, really benefit from coming up
here. So I went to Athens. And when I got to Athens
I was like wow! Man this is a different place. The
University
of Georgia was up there. I always say that Athens is
like LaGrange minus the big college. Athens is like
small town Georgia, small town South plus a
university that brings in about 100,000 extra people
to it. And of all of the people that come to the
University of Georgia and of the all of the people
who come there for whatever reason you got 80
different nations represented. You just got a
melting pot of all kinds of different flavors and
music, it just a big old melting pot.
Down-South.com: That's where you continued your rap career?
Bubba: Yeah this is where it really begins. Like I
said I had been into the
studio once in LaGrange but when I came to Athens I
bumped into a guy by the name of Bobby Stamps, who
is now my manager. But, at that point, he was just
my friend. As it turned out he knew a guy by the
name of Shannon Haucshins, who had previously been
employed as a staff producer for So So Def. He had a
studio and was making beats and stuff. He heard me
rap and said that I think that you should get with
Shannon. So he hooked me up with the guy Shannon.
And I go over the course the next few years I living
in Athens and working several job and trying to
maintain on a personal level, but also really
stating to find myself in the studio. I finally got
a place where I can record consistently. Shannon had
a studio in Atlanta so I was driving back and forth
from Athens to Atlanta, which is about a little over
an hour drive everyday and working two and three
jobs. This was back in 96.97 through about 2001.
Down-South.com: How did your music find its way to Timberland?
Bubba: Okay, here's how that happened. Me and this
guy Shannon were working making music and as it
turned out he bumped into this guy named Doug Kaye,
who had a distribution network down in Sarasota
Florida. He had heard some of the songs that we did
and like what he heard. He told us that if we
brought him a full album that he would put it out
for us. So we gathered what was an earlier version
of my first album Dark Day, Bright Nights and put it
in stores. We didn't really have much of a
promotional budget, but the people that heard it
were really into it. We ended up selling about four
or five thousand copies. Somehow it gets into the
hands of an A & R at Interscope records named
Gerrado Mehan, he the guy Rico Suave, the first guy
to release a record on Interscope Records. And he
was an A & R over at Interscope. He had brought in
Enrique Iglaesis and a couple of other things. He
wanted to use our project to try and broaden his
hand a little bit. So he
brought it in to Jimmy Irvine, the head of
Interscope. Jimmy really liked
what he heard, he liked it. And Gerraudo was trying
to bring it in and
Jimmy, although he liked what he heard, he was a bit
skeptical because they had just had that success
with Eminem and here I was this little white kid and
he didn't know if he might be pushing it too far. So
he wasn't really willing to commit. As it turns out
around the same time Timmy and Jimmy were getting
ready to sit down and discuss the details of the
possibility of bringing Beatclub Records over there
to Interscope. So when he sits down he says I want
to get somebody else's opinion so he plays my songs
for Timberland and Timberland say see that's the
kind of guy that I need. I need a Black dude like
that -that's what I need. And Jimmy tells him man
that's a white dude. And Timmy says for real? Timmy
says fly him out here, I wanna meet him. So the next
day I fly out to California and the rest is history.
Your first record went gold didn't it?
Bubba: Yep, 700,000 copies.
Down-South.com: Dark Nights, Bright Days was a critical as well
as a commercial success. It seemed like you were
poised for a major breakthrough. Your second album
Deliverance was a much better album that your first.
It was a critical success yet it failed to do as
well as the first one. In your opinion what went
wrong?
Bubba: Honestly I think it kinda fell between the
cracks of all of the
different radio formats. And I just don't think that
I just don't think
that anybody at Interscope, including us, knew what
to do with it. I mean how do you promote it? Do you
promote it like a traditional rap project? But the
rap people are saying it's too rock. Do you promote
it like a rock record when the rock people are
saying it too rap. There was just a lotta confusion.
Everybody knew that it was special. Jimmy tried a
lotta different things. The people at Interscope
tried a lotta different things because everybody
knew that it was special. But, look back on it, I
think that we probably should have just said fuck
it, and hit the road and let everybody hear it.
Because we're trying to service a record like
"Deliverance' to mix shows and to the DJs and they
were like I can't throw this on after Lil Jon gets
crunk. It just didn't really fit in.
Down-South.com: To me that's what made the record stand out. It
was introspective. It
made you sit back and listen to what you had to say.
Bubba: Yeah, for sure. Everything ain't for the
clubs.
Down-South.com: Yeah, but that record was an intensely personal
record also. It was the first time that I felt like
I understood who you were as a person.
Bubba: Right. To be honest with you, after "Ugly"
and the video came out a lotta those images..you
know a lotta people were kinda.. I guess they took a
lotta those images as a joke of some sort. Obviously
we did a lotta that stuff for entertainment purposes
-we were trying to entertain people. I mean you
should never take yourself too seriously to the
point where you can't laugh at yourself. For every
serious point you make there should be a joke. But
it really hurt me when a lotta people took that as a
total goof. I was wait a minute you think that where
I come from is just all hee hawed out and that's
it's just a big joke. What I'm going to do on this
second album is that I'm going to delve so deep into
this shit and I'm gonna make you understand exactly
what it is that I come from and where it is that I
come from. And you gonna know by the time this album
is over that my life is not a fucking joke. That's
what I set out to do. I think that if deliverance
didn't anything it took the smile off muthafukas
face.
Down-South.com: You regret doing the album as opposed to just
taking the safe route and giving the label another
set of songs like "Ugly?"
Bubba: Yeah that's what everybody was saying and,
believe me we had four or five of them. Remember
that Lil Kim record that Timberland gave her?
Down-South.com: Lex, Coup, Beamer, and Benz..
Bubba: Yeah, that was my record..I had that record.
I had a couple different records like "Ugly." We
went in a totally different direction. We said, you
know what, that's not what we wanna do this time.
We're gonna roll the dice and we're gonna try and do
something great with this sound. And we were this
close to pulling it off -it just didn't line up for
us. I have no regrets but I will say this with this
album, because I know more now. You know I can take
a stand. I can do music that the critics are going
to praise or whatever, but that's not gonna keep the
heat and the lights on. But just me naturally I
can't just make cookie cutter music. It's always
gonna have some kind of an edge to it. But I will
say this ..this album The Charm, as in the third
time is the charm, it builds on what we were doing
the first time and what we're doing the second time
around. Big and I both feel that this is the type of
album that I have to come with the third time. This
record's been a year and half in the making and I've
been quite. I've been quite. But I feel really good
about what I've got in the chamber right now.
Down-South.com: How did you get off Beatclub and onto Purple
Ribbon Records?
Bubba: Well, my situation just came to an end over
there. Timberland and Jimmy Irvine were in a bad
place; it ironic because they're actually getting
ready to do another deal together now. Timberland
and I were actually still good, but the situation
really just came to its end and our relationship was
actually through Interscope Records so it's kinda
like a bank robbery -it fizzled and fell apart and
everybody just kinda went their separate ways.
Thankfully I bumped into Big...you know I've been DF
for several years now and I bumped into Big over in
London and he just asked what was up with
Deliverance. He said "man, they dropped the ball on
your project, man that album was a classic. What
happened? So we kinda got into everything and he
started basically telling me what he had going on
with the Purple Ribbon situation. At the time we
thought that it was gonna go down over at Def Jam
with LA Reid. It didn't happened for whatever
reason.it took a little more time than we wanted. It
went down over at Virgin and here we are...Big kept
his word. I think that it gonna be a better
opportunity over here. I'm just
thankful that somebody I grew up idealizing the way
I did Big has now got that kind of faith in me. Man,
when you talk about outkast and you talk about me
being from LaGrange Georgia..man they're the reason
why I thought I could rap.
I Still got the utmost respect and admiration from
Timberland and what he does, but in a sense, with
this I do feel like I'm coming home. I know that I'm
a place now where they understand me more than any
other place could understand me.
Down-South.com: Let's talk about the album The Charm, who did the
production on The
Charm?
Bubba: Organized Noise..that's the tone. This is
some of Organized Noise best work in years. Rico
Wade as a producer himself [it's] the best work he's
ever done. Rico did his thing on this one. We went
in about a year and a half ago and we set the tone.
We did ten to fifteen songs about five of which are
going to be on the album, but it's the meat of the
album. Mr. DJ came in and did some superb work. Big
Boi did a song and it's superb. I did one with
Timberland. I thought that it was important to show
in this day and age when people are so eager to be
at one another's throat at the drop of a hat, I
thought that it was important to show that things
were all good between me and Timberland. I am gonna
be forever indebted to Timberland. That man taught
me so much. He birthed me into this game so I got
nothing but love for Tim. It was important for me to
express that love for him by
doing some work with him. I also did a song with
Basement Beats outta St. Louis, the cats that did
beats for some of Nelly's early stuff. I'm talking
Country Grammer Nelly. I got a beat from the
Heatmakers, the cats that do stuff for Camron and
the Dip Set and all of that stuff. They did a song
on my album that's super hot.
Down-South.com: What are your favorite songs on the record and
why?
Bubba: There's song on my album called Represent. It
has a sample on there from Biggie saying I'm
supposed to represent. It's the first song on the
album and it's gonna kinda get people up to speed on
who I am. It's
everything that I just told you condensed into three
verses. I'm just trying to explain to people where
I've been and where I trying to go? |
|
by:
Charlie Braxton © Down-South.com |
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