Bow Wow Talks Fatherhood & No Longer Being Materialistic

By: Amanda Anderson-Niles

Rapper Bow Wow might have come into the game as a child rapper, but he’s managed to stretch out his career longer than most child acts ever could. While he’s not making as much music as he was several years ago, he has now shifted his focus to acting and even hosts BET’s 106 & Park. His personal life has also taken a drastic turn, as he is now a father to young girl. Bow Wow’s journey in fatherhood hasn’t been a smooth one, as he originally couldn’t get along with the mother of his daughter Shai. Recently the rapper revealed that he is now on good terms with his baby mama and he’s even committed to and enjoys paying child support to keeps things peaceful between them.

Bow Wow has an upcoming appearance on the next installment of Oprah: Where Are They Now? and on the show he opens up about parenthood and why he’s now at a point that he no longer feels he needs to floss and buy meaningless things like lots of jewelry and cars like he used to earlier in his career.

On fatherhood, he says:

“My life as a father is, is, is kind of new. My daughter’s only one years old. She’ll be two in April, April 27th. Shai lives in Los Angeles and I’m in New York full time, it’s so hard. You know, I Skype with her, and I just wish that I can just reach in there and grab her little self and I can’t…For her I just wanna make sure that you know she’s able to do the things I wasn’t able to do. I wasn’t able to go to school dances. I wasn’t able to you know try out for my basketball team ’cause I was on the road.”

Bow Wow also explains why he’s not concerned with buying lots of expensive cars and jewelry these days:

“When I was younger I pretty much bought every car I wanted. We call it stunting you know that’s when you’re flashy and you got all the jewelry. But, like, I don’t even wear all that stuff anymore, like, I’m so laid back and you know, just chill. I feel like now I’m at that point in my life where that stuff doesn’t – it doesn’t identify who I am. I don’t need it anymore. I remember a wise man always telling me you know you’re still Bow Wow when you take all that stuff off right?”

Check out the trailer for the episode below:

Tune in Sunday, April 28, at 10/9c.