Bow Wow Attempts to Let the Fans Kow "Him" with Move to Cash Money

Recently, the artist formerly known as lil bow wow, signed to the Cash Money/ Young Money imprint. It caught me completely off guard but the more I dwell on the idea, the more I realize that the industry move fits in with Young Money President Lil Wayne's recent activity. He appears to be quietly gathering up all of the lyrically slept on but potentially great rappers such as Jae Millz, Lil Scrappy, Drake, and now Bow Wow. I'm sure a part of that previous statement, my claim that Drake was slept on, is raising eyebrows but contrary to popular belief, Drake isn't completely new to the rap scene. In fact, his first mixtape came out more that three years ago and he is just now getting critical acclaim. I have been watching Drake grow over the past few years through all of his mixtapes and have been proclaiming him the future of rap since the first time I heard Room For Improvement, his humbly titled first foray into rap music.

Let me get off of that anecdotal tangent now and get back to the subject of Bow Wow's recent move to Cash Money. I have been listening to Bow Wow since I was a child as we are the same age and I have watched him progress from a little child, to an adolescent and now an adult. He has been unfortunately typecast through out his career due to the fact that he starting rapping at such a young age and has been considered as bubble gum rap. I attribute this to his previous labels as at the end of the day, the label is the one who decides what songs end up on an album and his previous labels wanted to appeal to the tween demographic with Bow Wow as it would be highly lucrative for him. Although this decision did line Bow's pockets pretty significantly, it was obvious that as he got older, he became more and more frustrated with his inability to be himself on his CD's. I often pondered how Bow Wow felt about being lyrically restrained as it was obvious by multiple public statements that he was frustrated about not being able to rap about subjects he was experiencing as he grew older. Just as a child actor gets typecast as their first character, so was Bow Wow typecast into the role of "tween rapper".

In the past year and a half, the public has seen Bow go from the kid in Like Mike to the adult rapper who frequently raps about the standard rap fodder of money, girls, and ostentatious amounts of jewelry. I have always thought Bow Wow had great potential as an MC, something I always got flack for, but that he was being creatively and lyrically held back by his label. Bow Wow's own statements have recently proved my theory correct as he stated that the reason for his move from Sony to Cash Money was so that he could express himself as he pleases instead of having to deal with tween subject matter. With the recent release of his mixtape The Greenlight, Bow Wow has finally escaped the muzzle that has been placed on him for years. Although I have to admit that it still feels strange to hear Bow Wow talking about having sex with women, using curse words, and talking about smoking marijuana after over 15 years of hearing none of this, I accept this change in character as apparently this is the real Bow Wow. I just hope he doesn't over compensate for his previous bubble gum rap career by trying to play the "thug" role as Bow Wow has the ability to steer youth towards greener pastures with his music as they can relate to him in age.

All in all, I am glad that Bow Wow has finally found a forum where he can let his fans know who he really is. His future in rap is very promising, especially considering the fact that at only 22, he has been rapping as long as Snoop Dogg, Jay-Z, and other rappers we consider groundbreaking artists from rap's heyday. I think that once the public digests Bow Wow's evolution from teenie bopper to man, that he will once again be able to top record sales as he did in the past.