Bow Wow on How 'Monumental' Diddy Was to Culture, Impact on Party Scene: 'It Ain’t Supposed to End Like This'

Bow Wow is reflecting on how “monumental” and “important” Diddy has been to the culture for decades as the Bad Boy Records founder remains behind bars in New York in a racketeering and trafficking case.

During a recent appearance on More to the Story hosted by Rocsi Diaz, Bow Wow was asked about “takedowns” in the industry. While he didn’t mention Diddy by name, it was clear who he was talking about when he gave his extended answer.

“I think it’s a very, very messed up situation,” Bow Wow said about 20 minutes into the interview. “I think it’s crazy. For me, I know I haven’t seen anything to hit the news that—as far as our industry—made me feel some type of way for three days straight. I would have never thought if it is the end this would be the story of how it would end. It ain’t supposed to end like this. For me, thinking on it, bruh supposed to be on a 250-foot yacht with his wife’s leg up, chilling. This how you ride it out. I think a lot of us probably never thought we would see this. For me, it’s like, it’s just unreal.”

Per Bow Wow, he and Jermaine Dupri also spoke about this, with the former telling the latter that he “would never have thought that we would see him in this position.” Diddy, Bow Wow said, again without directly naming him, long served as “the gatekeeper to the game” in numerous ways.

“He’s like the gatekeeper to the game to the point to where BET Awards weekend, it just didn’t feel right,” he said. “Because there was no motion. There was no parties. There was nowhere to go.”

Presumably, Bow Wow’s mention of the “BET Awards weekend” is actually a nod to the recent taping of the 2024 BET Hip-Hop Awards, which will air this Tuesday. The 2024 BET Awards, meanwhile, took place back in June, months before Diddy’s New York arrest. During their More to the Story chat, Diaz, who was recently announced as the co-host of a new Tubi talk show alongside Deion Sanders, made a point to specify the difference between mere parties and so-called “freak-offs.” The latter, of course, is a phrase prosecutors have used in connection with the various allegations against Diddy.

“No, the industry parties, the parties that we attend,” Bow Wow clarified. Elaborating a bit further, he noted that he was making a point to separate the art from the artist in this scenario.

“Once again, I’m separating it,” he said. “I’m talking about him as the artist, the person, right? How monumental and how important he was to the culture. Because I said, ‘Jermaine, there’s no parties.’ Every year, dude had [the parties] and you feel it. It's like a hole. It’s like, damn. He was just such a gatekeeper for the liquor in the clubs. He was everything hip-hop. So for that to die out, you just would have never thought.”

Bow Wow continued, “Especially when you look at somebody as somebody you study, somebody you idolize, somebody who you looked at like, yo, when it comes to hustle, when it comes to business and how to run your shit, he was the guy that every young hustler looked up to and wanted to either be like or wanted to [surpass].”

Overall, Bow Wow added before he and Diaz moved on to other topics, the whole situation is “sad” and “messed up.”

Bow Wow and Diddy have indeed had a friendly relationship in the eyes of the public, though that’s not unique in the industry at large. In 2018, they both took part in honoring Dupri at the Global Spin Awards in Los Angeles. Earlier into Bow Wow’s career, 2002 to be exact, he and Diddy both participated in MTV’s Rock N Jock NBA All-Star Jam in Philadelphia. The photo up top, meanwhile, shows the two at a French Montana-hosted event at SupperClub in Los Angeles back in 2014.

Unfortunately though not surprisingly given the current state of social media at large, the wave of Diddy allegations has also been made the subject of numerous conspiracy theories. To that end, Peter A. Berry recently debunked and dissected such conspiracy theories for Complex. See the results here.