Former child star and rapper Shad “Bow Wow” Moss has revealed that during his late teens, he struggled with addiction to lean, which is a mixture of codeine and promethazine.
He disclosed during a recent interview with “The Art of Dialogue” that his publicist lied to the press and fans at the time, attributing a drug-related hospitalization to dehydration.
According to the So So Def artist-turned-actor, his addiction severely affected his behavior, leading to erratic actions and causing him to miss multiple tour dates alongside Chris Brown. The 36-year-old further acknowledged that his love for lean impacted how he promoted the “Face Off” album, a joint project he did with former B2K star Omarion.
“I was sipping so much syrup, bruh. I said this too, like right after right after Mac Miller had died. I spoke on that,” he said to host Mighty Bolton.
In 2018, after Pittsburgh rapper Mac Miller died from an overdose, Bow Wow took to the then-Twitter platform and wrote, “To the youth- Stop with these dumb ass drugs. I’m going to let something out. When me and Omarion worked on ‘Face Off’ album. I was high off lean everyday! When y’all saw me on BET going off on [Touré] I was high off lean. My attitude everything changed.”
To the youth- Stop with these dumb ass drugs. Im going to let something out. When me and omarion worked on FACE OFF album. I was high off lean everyday! When yall saw me on BET going off on torae i was high off lean. My attitude everything changed. My fans started to…
— Bow Wow (@smoss) September 10, 2018
During a 2007 interview segment for BET with Bow Wow and Omarion, Touré asked Omarion, “Do you take moves from people like Chris Brown?” Before he could respond, Bow angrily exclaimed, “Don’t ask no other disrespectful, stupid-ass questions. That’s real talk,” before walking out. “I’m Mr. 106 & Park.”
From there, Bow Wow called his security and a few others from his entourage to check Touré for his disrespectful questions.
“I was drinking s—t like crazy,” he said in his recent interview. “If you go back and watch, it’s called ‘The Road to Platinum’ documentary series on BET, you’ll notice so many white Styrofoam cups, and you’ll see so many Hawaiian punch bottles in the studio. I was losing my mind. That lean s—t had me f—ked up.”
Touré later revealed that it was a “fake interview,” and how he pretended not to know Bow Wow and Omarion as a “prank.”
The “Bounce With Me” hitmaker said at a certain point in his addiction he was always irritated and snapping at people.
He also shared that it was a social activity, naming another rapper at the time, Lil Wayne, as someone who would also drink with him when they hung out.
Years away from drug abuse, Bow Wow recalled the great lengths that people took in an attempt to protect his teen-friendly brand, noting an incident that happened while he was on the road.
“I’ll never forget me and Chris was we were on our tour,” the artist said. “I was co-headlining with Brown and the opening night was a Cincinnati. When I got off the stage I collapsed and … I went straight to Cincinnati University Hospital.”
The Billboard Music Award winner, who is referring to a tour date in December 2007, said that he was experiencing stomach pains that were so severe that he had to go home to Atlanta and he missed dates in Baltimore, Chicago, and Detroit, three major markets for his fan base.
“I’m sitting in the hospital not knowing what’s going on and when I get back home this gets worse,” he explains, detailing he experienced symptoms such as “nausea,” “tremors,” and profuse sweating. “I didn’t know that I was having withdrawals that’s how much lean we was consuming.”
He credits his publicist at the time, the late Patti Webster, who founded W&W Public Relations, for intervening and managing the public perception of his substance abuse and hospitalization before gossip websites could sensationalize the story.
“She ended up putting out a press release and you know I was home in Atlanta, I saw the news,” Bow Wow remembered.
“So you know, if you look at that article up, it said dehydration. I was cap, you know. That’s just good PR. We didn’t want to let the world know that 18/19-year-old boy was you know heavy on the drink,” he added.
Multiple outlets like Rap-Up and HipHopDX all covered the story and reported his reps’ statement that he was hospitalized for dehydration. He would later refute the dehydration story and said to MTV News that he was in the hospital because he was acting like a rock star and “threw a fit in his dressing room, severely cutting himself in the process.”
Bow Wow says that he no longer does lean and only sticks to tequila and weed if and when he wants to party.
