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Truth Seeker
Scream Tour IV': The Woof's at Death's Door
By Sarah Godfrey
Special to The Washington Post
Monday, August 29, 2005; Page C01
Sooner or later, every young man who can be called a teen idol will sprout a chest hair, get a driver's license and decide that hugs from little girls are no longer reward enough for creative output.
Turning away from the tween fan base is tough, though. The 11-year-olds who love you sooooo much aren't going to disappear just because you decide you want to be taken seriously as an artist.
Case in point: Bow Wow, the 18-year-old rapper who has been trying to discourage schoolgirl crushes since his voice started changing. But he's finally figured a way to escape the pages of Teen People: faking his own death.
The headliner of "Scream Tour IV: The HeartThrobs" pulled the stunt near the end of his set during "Big Dreams," a somber track about youths falling victim to the streets, from his latest album, "Wanted." Dressed in a white suit, Bow Wow rapped while surrounded by cloak-clad dancers carrying a coffin. At the end of the song, MCI Center went dark for several moments and, when the lights came up, our hero Bow Wow was lying inside the casket. Typical Scream Tour shrieks of prepubescent passion gave way to cries of: "Mommy! What happened to Bow Wow?"
And in case the thousands of youngsters at Friday's concert didn't gather from the fake funeral that the Bow Wow of old is dead, the teen withheld his usual laughter and smiles during most of his time onstage, even mean-mugging his way through sugarcoated songs that made him a star, such as the fan-appreciation track "Thank You."
Read
By Sarah Godfrey
Special to The Washington Post
Monday, August 29, 2005; Page C01
Sooner or later, every young man who can be called a teen idol will sprout a chest hair, get a driver's license and decide that hugs from little girls are no longer reward enough for creative output.
Turning away from the tween fan base is tough, though. The 11-year-olds who love you sooooo much aren't going to disappear just because you decide you want to be taken seriously as an artist.
Case in point: Bow Wow, the 18-year-old rapper who has been trying to discourage schoolgirl crushes since his voice started changing. But he's finally figured a way to escape the pages of Teen People: faking his own death.
The headliner of "Scream Tour IV: The HeartThrobs" pulled the stunt near the end of his set during "Big Dreams," a somber track about youths falling victim to the streets, from his latest album, "Wanted." Dressed in a white suit, Bow Wow rapped while surrounded by cloak-clad dancers carrying a coffin. At the end of the song, MCI Center went dark for several moments and, when the lights came up, our hero Bow Wow was lying inside the casket. Typical Scream Tour shrieks of prepubescent passion gave way to cries of: "Mommy! What happened to Bow Wow?"
And in case the thousands of youngsters at Friday's concert didn't gather from the fake funeral that the Bow Wow of old is dead, the teen withheld his usual laughter and smiles during most of his time onstage, even mean-mugging his way through sugarcoated songs that made him a star, such as the fan-appreciation track "Thank You."
Read
