Now that it’s had some time to settle in, the announcement that country rap artist Bubba Sparxxx is headlining the first night of this year’s Rock of the Woods festival, taking place on farmlands just outside of Duncan, is surprisingly fitting. Farms, music, and country rap? Seems like a perfect match.
Sparxxx (real name: Warren Anderson Mathis) grew up in Georgia and now lives and writes music in the country music hotbed of Nashville. Country has always been a big part of his life, but so has hip-hop. He says he’s thankful that the old guard in Nashville is “letting its borders down, allowing some other influences to come in.”
“I grew up listening to everything, but country music was most prevalent in my household because that’s what my dad listened to,” says Sparxxx. “And then when I fell in love with music, it was all about hip-hop, but I always kept my finger on the pulse of country.”
Sparxxx distinctly recalls the first time he heard hip-hop music and, like his exposure to country, it came from a family member.
“The first hip-hop I ever heard was Beastie Boys’ Licensed to Ill album,” he says. “I think I was faking sick from school, actually, and my older brother came to pick me up and he was playing ‘Brass Monkey,’ so that was the first time.”
He quickly began indulging in any hip-hop he could get his hands on in the small town of Troup County, Georgia, starting with old-school rap like Run DMC and eventually discovering the first wave of gangster rap with Too Short, NWA, and Eazy-E in the late ’80s.
“That’s when I was head over heels in love with hip-hop,” he says. “It was around the time when people first started putting speakers in their cars and the west coast rap guys had the 808 kick drum in their production, and that definitely made it sound good with people riding around with big speaker boxes in their trucks.”
Sparxxx will be stopping in on Rock of the Woods during a tour of the west coast that has him playing 17 shows in 21 days. He just released his second album in nine months, Made on McCosh Mill Road, for the independent label New South, and is already planning a third album early in 2015. Previous to that, he hadn’t released an album since 2006.
“I’m incredibly excited about being an independent artist now and having the opportunity to proliferate and put out more music at a faster pace,” says Sparxxx. “I’d taken a good bit of time away from the music business and when I got the urge to start creating again, it’s been cool to put out another album when I want, instead of having to wait for years.”
And while country rap may not be for everyone, the mainstream appears to be catching on with pop-country artists such as Toby Keith and Tim McGraw incorporating elements of hip-hop into recent hit songs.
As for Sparxxx’s brand of rough-around-the-edges country rap, he’s thankful that he’s been able to build an audience since his debut album in 2001.
“You’re never going to please everybody, but I’ve definitely had enough people like what I do to make a very good living in this business for the past 13 years,” he says, “so for that I’m very grateful.”
And with his Rock of the Woods appearance looming, he’s excited to come back to BC for the third time and hit up one of his favourite cities: Vancouver. And to play a farm on Vancouver Island? Even better.
“The Rock of the Woods people have certainly been good to us,” says Sparxxx, “so we’re looking forward to getting there and just rocking for everybody.”
Bubba Sparxxx (at Rock of the Woods)
July 25
Cowichan Valley
rockofthewoods.com