Bow Wow: still making the girls scream

Jet, August 22, 2005 by Margena A. Christian

Bow Wow still has it--the music, the pizzazz, the looks and the ability to make the girls scream.

Age has been good to this dog. At 18, he's already on his fourth album, Wanted, and by summer's end will have wrapped up his fourth major tour.

"Honestly, I did not think I would see a Scream IV tour," he tells JET during an interview before a sold-out Chicago performance at the University of Illinois-Pavilion. "I thought it was like a once in a lifetime type of thing where I could do an arena once. Like Scream Tour II was the kickoff for the arenas. I never thought we would do it again, but we're here."

Let Me Hold You, which uses an interpolation of Luther Vandross' If Only For One Night, is the first chart-topper from Wanted. It features Bow's close buddy and fellow Scream tour artist Omarion.

The dog is back with this project. Bow Wow almost left the music business in 2003 during the release of his third album, Unleashed.

The project, which featured the song Let's Get Down, marked a season of change for Bow Wow. His voice got deeper, he cut his trademark braids, and removed the "Lil" from his name.

During a 2003 interview with JET, Bow Wow was nearly ready to throw in the bone.

"I'm already drained out. It's really hard on teenagers in this business," he said. "You get drained out easily. People don't understand how hard it is being the industry. You've got to be here and be there and you get fed up with it. It's like you almost don't want to do it anymore."

That frustration was heightened when he wasn't able to work with his mentor/ "big brother," hip-hop music mogul Jermaine "JD" Dupri due to a business transition made by Dupri.

Luckily, Bow Wow put his paw down and made some noise, insisting that he wouldn't do another album if he couldn't work with Dupri. Things worked in his favor. Boy Wonder is back with the highly-acclaimed superproducer.

"I think everybody goes through different things in their life and sometimes it's for the good," says Bow Wow. "You don't want everything to come easy.

When you go through obstacles in life, you bounce back from it, learn from it ... I definitely felt like it helped me. It matured me mentally and just really made me look at this whole situation as it was--a business."

One bright spot during what he calls his "maturing mark" in 2003 was his meeting a then-unknown singer/dancer named Ciara. The two met when she was an extra in a movie for his tour when he did the Unleashed album.

They've been friends since that time and are now dating. The two collaborated on Bow Wow's song Like You.

While Bow Wow realizes that some of his female fans may be a bit crushed about his relationship, he says they shouldn't be.

"One thing I tell my fans is that my relationship with them is a relationship that can't be broken. That's how I look at it. I don't think anybody should take it that personal. I'm 18. I consider myself a young adult ... I'm about to move on my own and in my own house. These are things I don't think people really understand. I think people still look at me like I'm that little dude still and I'm not. I'm so not. People don't want to really see me grow up. But like I said, I can't please everybody."

He continues, "I can't make everybody in the world happy. It's always going to be that one girl out there that is upset at the fact I choose to do what I do. At the same time, I am my own man and I make my own decisions."

In 2002, Bow Wow took a leap from the music studio to the big screen when he starred in the movie Like Mike. He followed that film with a role in 2003's Johnson Family Vacation. In September, fans will see Bow Wow in the teenage skater dramedy movie Roll Bounce. "This role was a challenge for me," he says. "I knew in my mind there was no way I could pull this character off. I never really acted. I haven't really did anything to make people say, 'Damn.' That's what I did in this film. It was set back in 1978. It's a crazy story. I feel like there hasn't been a father and son connection like this since Boyz in the Hood. It think it's even deeper."

Reflecting on his career, Bow Wow says that he takes nothing for granted.

"Performing was something I was born to do. It's in my blood. I read a book, The Purpose Driven Life. My life has a purpose. I would try to do other things, but I would keep finding myself back to this--the music. I've been blessed and I've been touched to move people and to make girls cry or scream."