NEW ORLEANS — Bow Wow's first love has been replaced. After six albums in seven years, the 21-year-old says his focus has shifted from music to acting.
"I love it more than music," he said on the set of "Hurricane Season." "Music is the reason I'm doing movies, I do credit that. But acting is an escape route for me.
"As of right now, I'm still gonna release another album," he added. "Music is second to me right now. Acting is my number-one priority ... and this is the first time in my acting career I've been able to do movies back to back to back. I don't wanna lose that momentum. I don't know if this opportunity will ever come around again, so I want to abuse it as much as I can."
Bow's last album was Face Off, a duet LP with Omarion. The album only spawned two videos, and its rollout definitely wasn't the extravagant takeover the two had planned. Bow said he wasn't disappointed with the outcome.
"It definitely met my expectations," he said. "Without any support from the label, without any radio, for us to sell the amount of records we did is a win. Would I do it again? It's all about the timing. I felt it [could have been] a better time for us to come out with the album. ... Face Off was for the fans. It wasn't for the critics. It wasn't for nobody else. It was what it was. We got a gold album. Everybody thought we couldn't do it, and we did it."
In New Orleans, Bow was filming scenes in a gymnasium, along with Lil Wayne, for "Hurricane Season." Forest Whitaker is top-lining the project, which centers on members of a high school basketball team in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. We see their lives on and off the court.
"It's about believing," Bow described. "We were a bad team. Forest comes in, gives his guidance ... we come together. That's what's important to us: come together as a unit and never give up hope. Never give up.
"I play a kid named Gary who lost everything in the hurricane," he continued. "I grew up with no father. Just me, my little brother and my mom. I'm forced to hurry up and mature very fast. I have no choice, being that I am the second oldest in the house. I feel it is my job to also take care of the family and provide and, when times get tough, try to take that pain and stress way from my mom. And keep my little brother occupied so he has a clear conscience too."
Bow wraps up filming within the next few weeks. He then segues back to the stage with his "Bow Wow as Shad Moss" tour. The trek kicks off July 14 in New York and is slated to end August 24 at Chicago's House of Blues.
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