Lil Bow Wow has recently opened up about some of the darkest times of his life amid his addiction to lean.
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Complex reported in February on Bow Wow’s interview on The Art of the Dialogue.
Bow Wow Said, ‘I Was Sipping So Much Syrup’
He recalled the difficult experience he had with the substance that actually led to him being hospitalized and on the verge of losing everything.
This apparently occurred around the time he was making his Face Off album with Omarion in 2007.
He said of that time, “I was sipping so much syrup.”
He said that he first admitted this after the tragic passing of Mac Miller, and claimed that his addiction was making him lose his mind.
Apparently, Bow Wow’s addiction got so bad that he would drink the substance wherever he went, leading Lil Wayne to eventually give him a “baby bottle” full of lean just to get his fix.
Bow Wow Collapsed After Performance
Eventually, his damaging behavior caught up with him in a scary way.
While on tour with Chris Brown, he collapsed after a performance in Cincinnati.
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His body shut down, forcing him to miss several dates of the tour.
He said, “I went straight to Cincinnati University Hospital,” and “ended up going back home to Atlanta after the first show.”
Bow Wow Endured Withdrawals
When he returned home, however, things got even worse.
Bow Wow said that he was sick, shivering and sweating in bed from withdrawals.
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He went on to open up about his former publicist’s plan to keep his addiction a secret, in which his absence from the tour was put down to “dehydration.”
He explained, “We didn’t want the world to know that 18, 19 year old Bow was heavy on the drank.”
Bow Wow’s Rap Career
Bow Wow got used to success a lot earlier in his career than most other rappers.
He first became interested in the genre at the age of 3.
By the time he was 6 years old, he was already rapping under the name Kid Gangsta.
And he actually performed at a concert in Los Angeles at the same age.
He was spotted by Snoop Dogg, who suggested he change his rap name to Lil Bow Wow.
Bow Wow later appeared on Snoop’s debut album on the track Gz and Hustlas.
He also scored his first TV performance on The Arsenio Hall Show.
And considering he did all this when he was still literally a child, it really looked like Bow Wow could have the greatest career in hip hop history.
He released his first album, Beware of Dog, when he was 13.
The album eventually gained double platinum status, with sales of over 2 million copies.
So, where did it all go wrong?
How Bow Wow’s Reputation Was Damaged
Well, since then, Bow Wow has found himself taking more than his fair share of Ls.
He’s actually become a little bit of a joke in the music industry.
And some of his very public humiliations have been pretty bizarre.
In 2010, the rapper was still in his early 20s, despite being in the rap game for over a decade.
However, something pretty hilarious happened that year that did some serious damage to his reputation.
Bow Wow’s Mother Called Him Out on Twitter
Reports flooded the internet when Bow Wow’s mom joined Twitter.
Her frequent tweets soon proved to be pretty embarrassing for Bow Wow.
One of them was actually aimed directly at him, calling him out for not spending enough time with her.
In the tweet, his mom wrote that it was time for Bow Wow to spend some QT with her now.
She went on to say that this was how sons were and that daughters were not like that.
Obviously, a lot of people found her comment extremely funny.
And if it had been an isolated incident, it might not have bothered Bow Wow too much.
However, there was plenty more where that came from.
As well as taking shots at her son, his mom also tweeted some pretty flirtatious sounding posts.
One read that her ex was looking good.
Although she added that it was too bad that she already had a boo.
Bow Wow Issued an Ultimatum to His Mom
This seemed to be a little too much for Bow Wow, who soon announced that he was going to make his mom delete her account.
However, this really backfired.
People made it clear that they were on his mom’s side and did not want her hysterical statements to stop.
But Bow Wow didn’t see the funny side and eventually got so desperate for the jokes to stop that he issued an ultimatum.
He stated that he would delete his own account unless his mom removed hers.
This forced his mom to take aim at him again.
She told Bow Wow over Twitter that he should never try to stop a person from saying inspirational words.
She called him wrong for saying what he’d said and said that she didn’t understand why her being on Twitter made him want to delete his account.
She also asked him to never compare her to other moms.
After appearing to lose a standoff against his own mom, Bow Wow definitely lost a little street cred.
Bow Wow Tries to Stunt in Rented Ferrari
A few years later, the Internet made him the butt of jokes yet again.
While in Los Angeles for the Grammy Awards, he was seen in several photos on social media in the driver’s seat of a Ferrari.
Bow Wow shared posts that seemed to imply that the car belonged to him.
However, he was soon exposed by the rental company that loaned him the car, who posted that their good friend Bow Wow had pulled up to the Grammys in the company’s Ferrari.
Stock Trader Called Out Bow Wow
But this wasn’t the last time Bow Wow got found out while trying to flex his wealth online.
In 2016, he posted a picture of a stack of cash on his Instagram.
While this was pretty normal in the rap world, what was different about Bow Wow’s post was that the photo was not actually his.
The original photographer, a stock trader named Timothy Sykes, called the rapper out for stealing his picture.
Although all of these incidents were kind of humiliating for Bow Wow, they were also pretty harmless.
However, he has also seen his rep damaged for more serious reasons.
Bow Wow Arrested and Charged With Battery
One of the main factors in this has been his public and problematic attitude toward women, which has come out in various social media rants over the years.
All of this got serious in early 2019, when he was arrested in Georgia and charged with battery.
CNN reported that Bow Wow had been taken in following a fight with a woman in midtown Atlanta.
At the time of the arrest, both Bow Wow and the woman had minor injuries, and both claimed the other had started the fight.
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Bow Wow was held on an $8,000 signature bond before eventually being released.
It later came out that the woman in question was his ex-girlfriend and Growing Up Hip Hop: Atlanta co-star, Leslie Holden.
Bow Wow’s lawyer stated that the rapper had suffered multiple injuries, while Leslie looked pretty much unharmed.
When news outlets reached out to Growing Up Hip Hop representatives, they received no comment.
Bow Wow’s Acting Career
However, this didn’t appear to affect Bow Wow’s place on the show, which he has been a cast member of since 2017.
Still, his reputation might have been permanently ruined as far as other TV work goes.
Prior to the incident with Leslie, Bow Wow was making waves as an actor as well as a rapper for several years.
He landed roles in big shows like Entourage, Ugly Betty, and CSI: Cyber.
However, records show that he’s since made far fewer TV appearances.
Although his career might not be where it once was, at least Bow Wow seems to have shaken off his crippling addiction issues and has returned to full health.
