Bow Wow Voices Disapproval on the Current State of Hip-Hop

Although mostly retired from making music, Bow Wow (FKA Lil Bow Wow) used to be a chart-topping machine in the hip-hop industry as a youth. Whether it be his 2005 hits “Let Me Hold You” and “Like You,” which both landed inside the top 5 of the Billboard Hot 100 or his 2006 Chris Brown-assisted radio magnet “Shortie Like Mine,” Bow Wow certainly knows what it takes to attract an audience.

So, when approached about how hip-hop has not earned a No. 1 song or album so far in 2023 at this year’s BET Awards, the 36-year-old gave a passionate theory to explain the genre’s disappointing year.

“People are putting out trash-ass music. Everything sounds alike, everything’s repetitive, same tempo, ain’t nobody doing nothing different,” he told Power 106 FM reporter Bryhana Monegain. “It’s just roll out the bed, everybody can do that.”

But, while Bow Wow thinks rappers are setting a low bar for themselves nowadays, he did predict that the paradigm will shift soon.

“It wasn’t like that [in the past]… And now we finally getting to a point to where I feel like now it’s about to shift back into the real shit,” he continued. “You really gotta have talent, you really gotta go. I think people are starting to get tired of it now, that’s why you don’t see nothing charting… Ain’t nobody doing nothing different. So, it’s time to shake the game up and get it back to what it needs to get back to., and that’s the real essence of artistry and real good music that’s gon’ last forever… I ain’t heard nothing that I say, ‘I’mma hear this 30 years from now.’”

At the end of the red carpet interview, though, Bow Wow did give three artists who are exceptions to the current rap landscape he described. “Drake, Kendrick [Lamar], and, I would say, [J.] Cole.”

The good news for Bow Wow is that the No. 1 drought for rap will likely end soon. While Young Thug’s recent album Business is Business is not expected to usurp Morgan Wallen’s stranglehold on the top spot, impending projects from Lil Uzi Vert, Drake, and Travis Scott will all have a decent shot at hitting No. 1.

(Photo by Brad Barket/Getty Images for BET)