Drake Says He “Wanted to be Like” Bow Wow Growing Up

Even though Drake recently announced that he’d be moving to Houston, a city he’s praised several times in his music, it’s clear that Atlanta has a special place in his heart. This fact became apparent this week when Drake performed back-to-back shows at State Farm Arena in ATL.

For Tuesday’s show (Sept. 26), Drake walked to the stage with one of the city’s hometown heroes, a habit he’s developed for most of the stops on his Its All A Blur Tour. This time, though, he was accompanied by Atlanta native Bow Wow, someone he has looked up to since his youth.

“Shout out my boy Bow Wow for walking me to stage tonight,” he proclaimed at the start of his performance. “I gotta say, Atlanta got a lot of legends, but that’s somebody who I wanted to be like growing up, so shout out to Bow Wizzle walking me to stage.”

Bow Wow, who rose to prominence in the early 2000s at a young age, found fame in both rapping and acting. A key figure in the hip-hop and entertainment scenes in Atlanta, it’s easy to see why he became an idol for Drake, who followed a similar blueprint to achieving acclaim.

However, Drake’s statement Tuesday was not the only thing he had to say about Georgia’s capital city. At Monday’s show, he similarly praised the town for its impact on the hip-hop genre, considering it has produced stars like Future, T.I., Killer Mike, Migos, and more.

[RELATED: Bow Wow Voices Disapproval on the Current State of Hip-Hop]

“Where would any of us be without Atlanta?” he asked. “All the love that you show, all the musicians that you’ve birthed, all the contributions that you give. This is hands down the most important place in rap music. You should be very proud of yourselves.

“All the artists that I’ve done the greatest work with, all the artists that I love, all the artists that inspire me, the majority of them come from right here in Atlanta. So, y’all make some noise for yourselves tonight. We celebrating you.”

For all the words of endearment Drake has given the city, he has also walked the walk in terms of honoring Atlanta’s rap scene. Earlier this year, it was announced that he would be producing a documentary alongside ATL’s own Jermaine Dupri titled Magic City: An American Fantasy. Though it’s currently unclear when the doc will be released, we do know that it plans to highlight the famous Magic City nightclub, which is a hub for many of the city’s brightest stars in the hip-hop community.

Photo by Prince Williams/Wireimage