The lil’ kid rappers of yesteryear are embroiled in beef and we truly hate to see it. Recently, Bow Wow and Romeo have entered unrelated public spats with the men who've respectively groomed them for stardom, with one tiff being a lot more serious than the other.
In a recent podcast appearance on The GAUDS Show, hosted by Ray Daniel, Jermaine Dupri claimed he dreamed up the idea for 106 & Park as an outlet for Black entertainers—specifically Bow Wow, the artist who was such a successful player on his So So Def label roster. “I was watching MTV and they had TRL. They catered to *NSYNC, The Backstreet Boys, and anything white that was coming out that was pop,” he said. However, let Bow Wow tell it, that claim is nonsense. The 35-year-old artist (né Shad Moss) responded via social media, imploring Dupri to “stop the cap” and giving credit to Stephen Hill, Rick Grimes, and the good folks at BET for conceiving the show.
Of course Bow Wow dominated the countdown show just as *NSYNC ruled TRL, to the point he was dubbed Mr. 106 & Park and acted as the show’s final co-host. Bow Wow made 106 & Park what it was, so by proximity, Dupri did, too. But to say he literally conceived the show feels dubious, especially when folks like Hill, former president of the network, has also called it an “overstep.” The disagreement got to the point where Da Brat chimed in and defended her right-hand man Dupri, saying Bow Wow was out of line. Feel free to assume she didn’t find it at all funkdafied.
All of the aforementioned people will probably be fine and get over it. It’s a stupid thing to argue about. However, matters over at the No Limit camp seem much more grave. After Master P posted condolences for the recently deceased DJ and entertainer tWitch, his son Romeo Miller took exception because he didn’t feel like his sister, Tytyana Miller, got the same type of public or private attention from their father after her recent death due to an overdose. The spat devolved into claims that Master P has been a neglectful father and exploited his son for decades, withholding money and more. Romeo even says he never touched the money from his Lil Romeo days and that it all went to paying his father’s taxes. He posted to Instagram a poem inspired by his life as the son of the rap exec called “The Tree of Trauma.” P and Romeo went back and forth a bit, with the disagreement seemingly remaining unresolved.
Seeing these rifts makes us nostalgic for the days of Romeo jackin’ The Jackson 5 and Lil Bow Wow rapping on all-time Neptunes production. On the bright side, they're not going at each other's throats this time. As I said, Mr. 106 & Park and Mr. So So Def need to think about all the money they made each other, get in a room, and hug it out. The Romeo and Master P thing though, that might require some therapy—or at least a Red Table Talk.
LEVEL Editors