The Philadelphia Tribune
Published: Friday, March 27, 2009
Bow Wow just can’t seem to shake his teenybopper image. Even after dropping the ubiquitous “lil’” from his name and scalping his cornrows, his fan base is still largely the “106 & Park” crowd that first saw him as a hazel-eyed kid Crip-walking in oversized jeans.
On the diminutive rapper’s upcoming release “New Jack City Part 2,” he aims to change this perception with a glaring parental advisory sticker — a first on any Bow Wow album. Now guest stars like T.I., Nelly and T-Pain can spew profanities without caution.
“A lot of times when I get these guys to get on the album, I always gotta censor out stuff. I feel like I’m cheating my fans because my fans are T.I. fans and Lil’ Wayne fans,” says Bow Wow, who celebrated his 22nd birthday this month. “This album, I wanted to take a leap and let them come on and approach my album in the same way they would approach their own.”
Slumped down in the chair with a black windbreaker pulled over his red New Era cap, Bow Wow took a quick break Monday on the promo tour for his seventh release, before heading to Haverford High School to greet a mob of screaming students.
For these listeners, the rapper will release two edited versions of “New Jack” next Tuesday, with bonus tracks.
“When I go to the studio, I don’t feel like, ‘Oh, I have to make this record for the kids’ or ‘I have to make this one for the adults.’ I go to the studio and just do what comes naturally.”
Bow Wow’s boisterous raps usually revolve around big money (“under 21 with a black card”), big cars (“something like a NASCAR”) and “Big Girls.”
“New Jack” is much of the same, except more curse words and sexual references (“Pole In My Basement”). In “Been Doin’ This,” Bow Wow is angling more aggressively for respect from his peers and critics.
“If you wanna claim to be the king of the teen era or whatever it is, you gotta put in more work. Until you’ve done that then you’re not considered that thing. I don’t care if you dropped one album and you make the kids go crazy,” says the rapper, who was discovered by Snoop Dogg at age 5.
“You gotta do eight arena tours, sell out the Garden (Madison Square Garden) seven times,” he challenged. Bow Wow headlined the wildly successful “Scream” tours, with singers Chris Brown and Omarion.
Mentor and So So Def CEO Jermaine Dupri re-connects with his protégé as executive producer. The two have knocked heads over creative differences on previous projects. Dupri opted out of Bow Wow’s “Face-Off” collaboration with Omarion, which received limp radio-play.
“He knows me. He knows my work. He knows the type of records that are right for me, the type of records that’s wrong for me. He’s the only person who can give me that formula,” says Bow Wow, who shared his admiration for Dupri on “Rock The Mic.”
Recent moves in his career have signaled a shift in ambition from the rap stage to Hollywood. In his role on the HBO series “Entourage,” Bow Wow, born Shad Moss, plays a hot-tempered, up-and-coming comedian. The “Roll Bounce” star told fans on his YouTube channel that “New Jack” might be his last album.
“I only have one more album contractually with Columbia Records — no telling what I’ll do with that. At this time, I feel like with 17 years of nonstop music … I gotta show Hollywood and dedicate my time to them just as much as I did with the music game.”
When the conversation turned to his role in the upcoming film “Hurricane Season,” Bow Wow straightened his posture and flashed his hallmark smile. The budding actor joins Academy Award winner Forest Whitaker, Academy Award nominee Taraji P. Henson and Isaiah Washington in the movie based on the true story of a Louisiana coach (Whitaker) who leads his team to a state championship a year after Hurricane Katrina left the state in ruins.
“I play a character named Gary. And basically, I’m the point guard and I’m like the rock and soul of the team. I’m the more serious guy on the team, believe it or not, keeping everybody together.”
The film, slated for release this summer, captures the tension between the students displaced by Katrina. “A lot of the kids went down to Atlanta and Houston; a lot of them didn’t get along and we actually relived those situations in the movie,” including a fight scene where Bow Wow’s character gets his nose broken after a run-in with some kids from Houston.
After working with Whitaker, Bow Wow says his eyes are set on an Oscar. He may sound more like a young Denzel than the next Jay-Z, but his competitive attitude is strictly hip-hop. “First day on the set, you met each other — hello, how you doing? — But after that, I’m tryna outshine everybody on camera.”
