Bow Wow, 32, was arrested on February 2 for allegedly assaulting a woman by the name of Leslie Holden in his Atlanta condominium, Officer Jarius Daugherty confirmed HollywoodLife at the time. After police were unable to determine who the aggressor was, both the rapper and Holden were arrested and charged. The incident ended up making headlines and both mugshots, showing minor injuries to both parties, were revealed. Now, Bow Wow’s side of the story will finally be told on Growing Up Hip Hop: Atlanta when season 3 of the WeTV show premieres on June 13 at 9 PM ET.
HollywoodLife caught up with Bow Wow’s longtime friend and mentor, rap legend, Da Brat, 45, ahead of tomorrow night’s premiere, where she revealed that she attempted to prevent Bow from even getting involved with Holden in the first place. “It’s hard because we try to tell Bow Wow — JD [Jermaine Dupri], myself, his mom and Snoop [Dogg] and other people who love him — ‘Don’t do this, don’t do that. We’ve been through hell. Learn from our mistakes,'” Da Brat, who is also an executive producer on GUHHATL told HollywoodLife while at our New York headquarters. Da Brat also noted that she was so adamant about warning Bow to stay out of trouble because she, herself is “still paying” for past scuffles she was involved in.
“It’s not easy when you go through these things and we tried to tell Bow, but he does it anyway and this is where he landed — in jail, because of some girl that we kept telling him about,” she explained. “She wanted to be famous, she wanted to be a rapper,” Da Brat said of Holden’s motives with Bow. “He’s still trying to bring his career up to the top. You can only bring somebody else up when you’re poppin’. He doesn’t listen and it’s a lesson learned. If there’s kids watching the show, hopefully they’re inspired and understand, don’t do the dumb sh-t that Bow Wow does.”
As for how Bow, who is also an EP on the show, is doing after his arrest? — “He said that this has toned him down and he’s learned a lot,” Da Brat revealed, adding, “Bow, in his mind, he’s awesome. He’s acting like he’s grown, but we shall see.” And, that’s apparently what fans have to look forward to in season 3.
Da Brat also hinted that there may be another woman in the picture. “I think there’s some other new girl now. I don’t know. He tries to keep it on the low and not tell me too much,” she said. “I usually have to find out through the grapevine and through our family members, but, Bow is gonna be Bow.”
Da Brat, the first female rapper to ever go platinum, helped Bow in the early stages of his career, along with Jermaine Dupri and Snoop. She commended him on how far he’s come as an independent artist. “He’s real hungry when it comes to music,” she said. “He will stay in the studio all day and night. He does a great job writing, producing and coming up with his own stuff himself.”