Bow Wow, the pint-sized novelty act who made preteen girls swoon with his 2000 debut, Beware of Dog, has somehow evolved into an elder statesman in the hip-pop genre. Now 20, he has split with longtime producer Jermaine Dupri and just released his sixth CD, Face Off, a collaboration with B2K's Omarion.
The Ohio native — whose real name is Shad Gregory Moss — spoke to us by phone from his suburban Atlanta home in a gated community. This was shortly before a string of recent embarrassments in which he threw a pre-concert temper tantrum, cut his hand, missed some tour dates, and a video was released of him storming out of a BET interview.
Bow Wow:
Giving tips to
all the young’uns.
Details
Bow Wow performs with Chris Brown, Soulja Boy, and others on Saturday, Dec. 29, at 7:30 p.m. Admission is $20; call 510-569-2121 or visit
www.coliseum.com for more info.
Oracle Arena
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As a rap veteran of sorts, what advice would you give to Soulja Boy?
Number one, don't listen to what nobody got to say, because right now Soulja Boy's been catching flak. [Some artists] feel like anybody can go into the studio and say "You" a hundred times and have a hit record. But one thing that you can't take away from him is his stats. Right now he's got the biggest record out right now, period. If you asked a lot of rappers to make records like Soulja Boy, they couldn't do it.
What do you think about that video circulating of him peeing off a hotel balcony?
[Laughs.] People don't realize that he's only 17. He's just a kid. I'm not saying that's the right thing to do, to pee off a hotel balcony. But people need to realize that Soulja Boy is Soulja Boy. He's a wild 17-year-old. I would tell him, "Don't do that no more, because it's nasty!" That's very disgusting. I actually saw the clip. It's crazy. But that's what makes Soulja Boy Soulja Boy.
Do you still believe what you told XXL in 2005 about Will Smith not being a real rapper? You also said, "The only real rappers out there right now are me, Kanye, 50 [Cent], and maybe Jay [-Z]. But Jay ain't in it like that no more."
That a crazy statement! [Laughs] I look at that, and I'm like, "Why did I say that?" What I meant was ... I get so many comparisons to Will Smith. It's not a bad thing; it's a great thing. I do like Will a lot. Actually, after that interview I called him personally and asked him to have a one-on-one with me in my trailer. So we talked everything out. What I meant by the comment was, at that moment, I had two number one records already, and I was the only rapper who was headlining his own arena tour. And the only rappers that was hot at that moment — at that moment — was 50, Kanye, and Jay was on the Fade to Black thing. They didn't put all of that in the interview.
Why did you break off from Jermaine Dupri?
The main reason was to discover who I am. My whole career I've wanted to write my records. I want to be more involved with the direction my music goes, and I can't do that when I have a coach that I'm playing for, and he draws up the plays. I've learned everything I can from Jermaine, and now I'm ready to move on. I'm so smart that when my fans hear the music — especially my next album, which I might do myself — they're really not going to be able to tell whether Jermaine was part of the project or not.
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