Get Your Lil' Bow Wow Slander Out Of My Goddamn Face

So Carl blogged before about how the Barstool main Twitter account took an unnecessary shot at the Dave Matthews Band. They were lumped in with the likes of Rebecca Black, Matty B, and Jacob Sartorius. His passion defending his favorite musical act inspired me to to defend my favorite musical act - Lil Bow Wow (now just known as Bow Wow). 

I don't care that this graph was only for engagement to get certain groups of people mad, the mere suggestion that Lil Bow Wow is on the same level as some of these other horrendous acts is just downright offensive. It's garbage. It's rubbish. 

First, let us not forget that in addition to being a generational musical talent, Lil Bow Wow is also an acting icon who provided us with one of the 21st century's most important films: Like Mike. And Like Mike gave us the absolute bop that is "Basketball."

Eventually, Wow grew up, dropped the "Lil" from his name, and became one of the hottest rappers in the game. His album "Wanted" is up there in most people's Mount Rushmore of best rap albums. Let's flash back to November 2005. I'm at a Walmart in Florida with my parents. I was getting into rap at the time and wanted to buy a new rap album. My parents were concerned that some rap would be too mature for my little virgin ears, but we saw Bow Wow's album and thought, "Oh the kid from Like Mike? I'm sure he's clean and some good family fun." Well we started to play in the car and were met with an immediate flurry of n-bombs and adult, sexual references. Bow Wow had grown up. But his flow was dynamite, and he immediately became my favorite artist. 

Quick: think of a live musical performance that you would say defines the 21st century of music. Bet I can read your mind. 

Yup, we're all thinking it ⁠— Bow Wow and Ciara at the 2005 American Music Awards. 

Bow Wow (government name Shad Moss) followed up this smash hit album with "The Price Of Fame" in 2006. It was always a pet peeve of mine that they bleeped out all the curses in the album but didn't offer a "Parental Advisory" version. Never made sense to me. 

Wow and Ciara had now broken up, so we got two heartfelt breakup songs in "Outta My System" and "Tell Me."And we also got the hit "Shortie Like Mine"

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To paraphrase Drake, the Mount Rushmore of rappers is Bow Wow's face four times. 

Now you may be wondering, "Whatever happened to Bow Wow over the past decade?"

Well, I'm not quite sure. But his body of work in the early 2000's alone is enough to make him an icon and keep him off an ironic graphic like the one we tweeted yesterday.