Romeo Miller Admits Bow Wow Was An ‘Inspiration’ To Him: People Always Wanted Us To ‘Compete’
Despite Romero Miller’s rivalry with Bow Wow – and their rumored love triangle with Angela Simmons – ‘The Mix’ star tells HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY why he’d rather ‘give roses’ to Bow than battle.
“Right now, that was something where a lot of fans, it was trending that me and Bow Wow should do a Verzuz,” Romeo Miller told HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY during an Oct. 5 episode of TVTalk. During the chat, the rapper — and co-host of FOX SOUL’s live talk show The Mix, relaunching on Oct. 6 – reflected on how in April, fans went rabid over the idea of Romeo, 31, taking on Bow Wow (born Shad Moss, 33) in the head-to-head battle. Instead of reheating their decades-old beef, Romeo announced in August that he reached out to Bow Wow to do a documentary about their careers. “[Bow Wow and I] were literally the face of a generation. I know now a lot of people may try to downplay that, but what me and him did for the culture of hip hop, it will never be done again at that age, and I just want to give people their roses, you know?”
“People always put us against each other and me and him know it’s funny,” Romeo told HollywoodLife. “We used to have Valentine’s Day Parties together where the girls would be going crazy. They’d be like, ‘Rom and Bow Wow throwing a Valentine’s Day party together?’ It was crazy. We’ll be hoopin’ at UCLA together. We’d have workout nights when we were younger, so I just think the world wanna compare and make you compete, but the truth is, — they’ll be surprised if they knew the real story behind our story, and I think that’s how you inspire the world.”
As for when fans can expect this Romeo/Bow Wow documentary, he tells HollywoodLife that he’s “still on it,” and things are in the works. “I’ve reached out [to Bow Wow]. He reached out to me one time. I haven’t heard back, but I think after everything slows down, we’ll get the ball rolling on that, so it’s to be continued right now.”
Like Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears, or like the Backstreet Boys and NSYNC, Romeo (fka Lil Romeo) and Bow Wow (fka Lil’ Bow Wow) were seemingly pitted against each other because of their similarities. They were both teenage rappers who debuted in the early 2000s, and while it never got to the level of Tupac Shakur/The Notorious B.I.G., there seemed to be some rivalry there. Romeo has since said that this beef was mostly fueled by the media. However, their more recent drama – which has been captured on Growing Up Hip Hop – has been over a love triangle involving Angela Simmons.
Could these two keep their love and hip hop separate long enough for a friendly Verzuz battle? “You could wait and see!” he told HollywoodLife. “That’s the beauty of life! That’s why we live, right? You never know what’s to come tomorrow, but that’s just something where I want to make sure I’m giving the proper roses to those who inspired me. Bow was definitely an inspiration. I think it’s like with LeBron James. ‘Who’s better? Michael Jordan or Kobe [Bryant]? We’re all great in our own sense.”
“It doesn’t always have to be a competition,” added Romeo. “I think this world we always want to knit pick and make everything a competition. It’s like, let’s celebrate the success that was made. Let’s celebrate these two young kids who made a difference. These two African American kids who actually chased their dreams and accomplished it at such a young age. Like I said, you never know. I’m one of those people who’s a go with the wind kind of guy.”
Romeo can be seen on FOX SOUL’s The Mix. The Gen Z/millennial talk show relaunches on Oct. 6 at 10pm ET / 7pm PT and airs each subsequent Tuesday night. Fox Soul is available on iOS, Android, Apple TV, FireTV, YouTube/FoxSoul, Samsung Plus, Fox Now, Roku, Tubi, Xumo, CaffeineTV, or on the web at foxsoul.tv.