Bow Wow's longtime mentor and collaborator Jermaine Dupri stopped by The Breakfast Club on Tuesday morning and came to his defense about the #BowWowChallenge and a long line of recent incidents that have resulted in public ridicule.
Clearing up a recent incident where people called out Bow Wow for claiming he has a club in his crib—which was actually Dupri's So So Def studio—he said, "Everybody knows Bow Wow stays at my studio. If you know Bow Wow, you know that's where he's always at. So, him saying that, it is like his crib. The fact that people looked at it like [he's] lying... He's just in a space where people keep challenging him."
Addressing another situation where Bow Wow was dragged for sharing a photoshopping image of himself alongside Death Row artists like Tupac and Snoop Dogg, Dupri said, "Just so I can clear this up to everybody listening, Bow Wow was signed to Death Row when he was 5 years old. So when he put his picture in that picture, people thought he was out here trying to be a part of it. He was probably just mad he was left off. But he was really signed to Death Row at 5 years old."
Then, attempting to explain a video of fans chasing Bow Wow that many people didn't believe was real, Dupri said, "We couldn't get out of the arena. Bow Wow chose to run around the back and get to the bus himself. They filmed this and he got chased. He was getting chased. This was real. And people took it and said, 'Bow Wow, people aren't chasing you.'"
"He's just in a position where he's young," Dupri said of the 30-year-old, touching on why he thinks Bow Wow is such an easy target. "He's a small guy and smaller people get picked on different than a lot of people. And a lot of these kids just don't know [about the early successes of his career]."
Looking at Bow Wow's future, Dupri said, "What's crazy is Bow Wow has more No. 1 records than Drake." He didn't clarify which category he meant, though; Drake has Bow Wow beat in the Hot Rap Songs and Hot 100 charts when it comes to most No. 1s.
"When we talk about stats and we talk about rap, people don't want to hear that. People want to put him in a different box," Dupri added. "He should continue to keep doing what he's gotta do. He's just got to pay attention to that and focus on that stuff more than the other stuff that be going on." Check out the interview above. The Bow Wow talk starts at the 18:05 mark.
