Bow Wow Reveals Addiction That Led to Him Being Hospitalized

Bow Wow is opening up about his addiction to lean after it landed him in the hospital. The 36-year-old rapper, born Shad Gregory Moss, spoke candidly about his struggles with drinking cough syrup containing promethazine and codeine mixed with soda during a recent episode of The Art of Dialogue podcast, saying it reached its peak in 2007 while he was collaborating with Omarion for the Face Off album

"I was on lean. I was sipping so much syrup. I was drinking that s— like crazy," Bow Wow recalled, adding, "I was losing my f-ing mind. That lean s— had me f—ed up." The rapper hit rock bottom when he collapsed on stage while performing in Cincinnati with Chris Brown and was rushed to the hospital. "My stomach was so f—ed up that I ended up going back home to Atlanta after the first show," he said, and it was there that "the s— gets worse."

"I'm throwing up, I'm shivering in the bed, I'm sweating, I'm going through it," he recalled of going through "withdrawal" from lean. It was quite the wake-up call for the "Outta My System" rapper, who said his stomach was "so f—ed up" he felt like someone had stabbed him with a knife. "I never felt this type of pain in my life," he said. 

Bow Wow went on to thank his late publicist, Patti Webster, for keeping his addiction out of the spotlight, as at the time she sent out a press release saying that her client's collapse was due to dehydration. "[It] wasn't no dehydration – I was f—ed up off lean," he said. "We didn't want the world to know." Since then, Bow Wow said he's learned "boundaries" and kicked his addiction to hard drugs.

This isn't the first time since Bow Wow has spoken out against drugs. In 2018, the musician took to Twitter with a message to young people about his own addiction struggles. "To the youth -- stop with these dumb ass drugs," he wrote. "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 Torae I was high off lean. My attitude, everything changed. My fans started to turn on me, my family too."

"Kick that s-!" he continued. "Be a good son or daughter. Be the best you. Ima start being more vocal. We gotta save the youth from going out early. Parents watch your kids. Explain to them. We want y'all to live man. I almost died f-king with syrup. To this day I'm affected, my stomach will never be the same and it hasn't been. DRUG FREE IS THE WAY TO BE! Smarten up tighten up out here. We can't lose no more of you. Not one! I love all y'all. The young artist all the kids around the world... don't follow a trend. Break the cycle. PEACE."