Bubba Sparxxx Breaks Hip-Hop Mold

NEW YORK (AP) - Some of Bubba Sparxxx's family and friends didn't understand at first that he wanted to become a rapper.

Sparxxx, whose real name is Warren Anderson Mathis, is a white guy from La Grange, Ga. Now, he's a protege of rapper-producer Timbaland.
"I had family members who were extremely racist, but I'm helping them understand that things are changing,'' he told Spin magazine for its November issue. "A white kid from the rural South doing hip-hop? I'm proof positive the world is changing.''

The video for Sparxxx's first single, "Ugly,'' is getting lots of play on MTV. It celebrates all things Georgia, with guys riding pigs in a mud-soaked pen, girls in bikinis eating peaches and bulldogs lunging at the camera.
"I hate country music, but I really am a country dude,'' the 24-year-old said. "I grew up on a dirt road, and my closest neighbor lived a mile away.''