We, as a collective, have got to do a better job of recognizing The Greats while they're still here with us. I am fed up with waiting on legends to go on to glory before we pause to honor them. That cycle ends today! So listen up!
This particular post was created to honor a man who has made endless contributions to The Culture - but who also can't seem to shut up long enough for us to remember them. A man, by the name of: Shad "Bow Wow" Moss.
Over the course of the last few years, Bow Wow has done a stellar job of turning himself into a running joke personified. I'm sure no one needs a refresher but, yeah...
So before his legacy goes to complete shit (all thanks to himself) let us take this moment to reflect on why, no matter how many headass Instagram videos he makes; Lil Boweezy will always be a one-of-one, a myth, a man, and a legend simultaneously.
1.
Of course we have to kick this list off with the fact that he did what R. Kelly and Lil Wayne couldn't by, not only dating Ciara, but being the first in the industry to do so.
And to be quite honest, "Like You" is a top five power couple bop.
2.
Now, pretty much all of our favorite musicians at some point or another have felt the need to try their hand at acting. But ask yourselves, how many of them were actually good? Bow Wow displayed his talents in:
Carmen the Hip Hopera
All About the Benjamins
Tokyo Drift
Lottery Ticket
Madea's Big Happy Family
and especially Like Mike
Bowwow did not just play Calvin Cambridge in Like Mike- he was Calvin Cambridge, he BECAME Calvin Cambridge. When he was selling candy bars at the Staples Center trying to raise money for his group home, and didn't even know if the money was actually going to the group home, I really felt that.
3.
It's as simple as this....
"Off the chimney,
Over the fence,
Hit the car window,
All. Net."
4.
Before there was What a Time To Be Alive, before there was Watch the Throne, and long before there was Twenty88, there was this:
5.
A lot of celebrities get large and in charge, and forget where they come from... literally.
Por ejemplo:
But Bowwow was the first, yes, the very first, to successfully set hop with minimal detection.
One album, he was repping Columbus, Ohio - telling us that his fanbase stretched from his hometown of the "C .O" to "across the seas".
Then, all of a sudden, he was talking about some, "down down, around, Atlanta-lanta fa-found".
And no one even blinked an eye. Iconic.
6.
He asserted his grown man status by taking the "Lil" out of "Lil Bowwow" in 2002, and any successful name change mid-career is legendary
7.
Now, does your fave have a whole entire song dedicated to their fanbase thanking them for all of their love and support?
WITH Jagged Edge on it?!
I think tf not.
I mean quite honestly the list is impeccable and infinite:
He was a style icon with the spray painted tees and the beads on his box braids.
He was ahead of his time with his appreciation for ghetto girls (before Teen Vogue made ghetto, “cool”) with a whole song entitled, well, "Ghetto Girls".
He was a trendsetter with honeydips like Solange and Erica Mena in his videos before they blew up.
