Rob Markman: When you came in obviously, you got signed when you were six years old, and
again growing from boys to men ... I wanna talk about one of the topics this week that
came up was writing, and ghostwriting, or even when they get credit.
And it's accepted.
I think maybe 10, 15, 20 years they'd be like, get out of here with that-
Bow Wow: Right.
Rob: Nobody seems to really care anymore.
What I wanna do with you is, I wanna kind of track your career writing ... So when you
first was getting written for, when you first transitioned to writing for yourself-
Bow Wow: All right.
Rob: I guess the first thing ... Can you list the people that written for you or written
with you throughout your career?
Bow Wow: Yeah.
Rob: Definitively, this is the definitive list.
Bow Wow: This is dope, cause I never really did this before, but Kurupt wrote my first
song ever ... Two songs, song called "Dave" and this other one called "After 3 pm" It's
on YouTube, I just posted it on my Instagram-
Rob: Right.
Bow Wow: Kurupt wrote for me, Brat, JD of course, my man Slim from Queens, we do a lot
of stuff together.
And my man Rock from Newark.
I got a lot of East Coast niggas that I have on my squad-
Bow Wow: That's it.
Here's a little gem.
When I was living in New York and I was hosting 106 & Park, when I was ready, I was so busy,
I couldn't.
I just didn't have time to get to the studio.
I didn't step in the studio for two years when I was hosting 106.
So, I reached out to Kiss.
No bullshit.
I just did not have the fucking time to get in the studio and write, but I wanted to keep
the wheel moving.
So I reached out to Kiss like, 'Yo, I ain't got time my nigga,' me and Kiss, I fuck with
Kiss, I'm like, 'Yo dog,' I'll up the bag like, 'I just ain't got time, I need ten things,
crazy, ASAP-'
Rob: Right.
Bow Wow: And my nigga like 'Shit it's nothing.'
Cause at the end of the day, it's about the delivery and it's about the song.
They don't get on R&B ... Beyonce don't write everything-
Rob: Right.
Bow Wow: You know what I'm saying.
Jermaine wrote the whole 'Confessions' album-
Rob: Whole Confessions.
Yup.
Bow Wow: You know what I'm saying, and ain’t nobody saying, 'Oh, it didn't come from-'
Bow Wow: You know what I'm saying ... So a lot of times, it's hard to write shit and
then if you write for somebody, because you know it's supposed to sound, it's hard for
the motherfucker to deliver it like how you did it-
Rob: Right.
Bow Wow: So it can be tough either way it goes.
But those are the only people that wrote that with me ... Oh and Tip, I'm sorry, how can
I leave Tip out ... Oh shit ... Tip, my bad.
Those are the only guys that ever rocked with me like that.
And I ain't gonna say no names, but it's a lot of, yo it's a lot of big dogs in the game,
and I know this for a fact, cause he told me.
Nigga was like, 'I ain't writing none of this shit.'
But because I got the look, and because I'm stamped, and because I'm an icon, and I got
that muscle behind me ... And they know I done did my shit, but I ain't got time for
that shit no more.
Rob: Right.
Bow Wow: That platinum on, that one, I ain't write that, I ain't write that, I ain't write,
I ain't write, I ain't write-
Rob: These are big dogs in the game-
Bow Wow: Big dog, a big dog.
Rob: You can say some name, it's just me and you here.
None of these cameras is here right now-
Bow Wow: I would never do him dirty like that.
Rob: I feel you.
Bow Wow: So, just know ... A lot of these niggas, even the ones that we considers legends
and 'Oh my God, he's a God MC,' they had songs written for.
Cause you had things sometimes, they could do the bar shit, but they might have problems
doing a record like, I want some melodic…
And somebody gotta come in and do it.
Rob: I think Snoop was vocal about his part on “Still D.R.E,” he's like, 'Jay wrote
the whole thing, Jay wrote my part-'
Bow Wow: Jay, Nas?
No, Jay wrote “Still D.R.E”.
... Nas wrote something for Dre.
Rob: Probably, without looking...
Bow Wow: No, I know it for a fact.
And then I know Eminem wrote some shit for Dre.
I could tell, but don't nobody question Dre, though.
And the reason why is because he found the talent, you know what
I'm saying-
Rob: He's the producer, so he has a whole vision for the record-
Bow Wow: So he gets the ultimate pass, you know what I'm saying, the ultimate pass, so-
Rob: What was the first record ... I'm glad, thank you for establishing that.
Now we got the definitive list.
What was the first record that Bow wrote for himself?
Bow Wow: First record ... Was 14, I did "Basketball," me and Fab-
Rob: You and Fab ... So the first record that you say, 'Listen, I'm doing this, you know
what I'm saying, on my own,' you go ahead up against Los.
Bow Wow: But as a kid I knew, I can get away with this as far as ... It ain't gonna be
no, oh, he bodied him or he bodied him.
But it was an argument in the studio, cause I was like, 'JD, dog, I gotta, I wanna write
my shit. bro.
I already done wrote the Kurtis Blow part like "Basketball," I kept the same cadence
with some of the words, just switched a little bit, but I'm like, 'Nah man, this next verse,
let me do it.
I wanna do it, let me do it.'
And it came out right, for a 14 year old ... 'I got the rock in my hand, ain't no telling
what I'm gonna do with it when I got possession, I'ma act a fool with it, I might cross you
up a fake one way, turn around and hit you with with the MJ' ... I was, that's 14.
I'm like shit, all right.
JD was like, 'Okay, I might let you get in on some session when we're writing for you,'
and that's how it started.
So I had to make JD believe that I could do it, and then once I did it by getting written
for so long, you build so much style and then I learned how to come in, or I started to
learn how to count bars, or this is an 8, or this is a 12, this is a 16.
And once I got a whiff of that, it just became easy at that point.
Rob: Nowadays, with this new project, you got ‘Greenlight’ coming, you got an album
coming down the road-
Bow Wow: Right.
Rob: Are you writing, are you still collaborating with writers?
Bow Wow: The whole shit, I don't need no help now.