Bow Wow announces his retirement at 29: ‘I just can’t see myself at 30 years old rapping’

Rapper-actor Bow Wow, a.k.a. Shad Moss, sent out a series of tweets over the weekend announcing his retirement from rap 16 years after getting started as teenage hip-hop prodigy.

“I always said I’d retire from music before 30,” Moss, 29, said in one of the tweets. “I just can’t see myself at 30 years old rapping.”

His second career as an actor has included television and film roles in “Entourage,” “Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Big Happy Family” and “Like Mike,” and he is a regular on the “CSI: Cyber” series as the character Brody “Baby Face” Nelson.

In an additional Instagram message to fans, he said he’ll release his final album, “NYLTH,” and that the executive producer will be Snoop Dogg, who helped usher Bow Wow onto that national stage in 2000 at age 13 with his debut album “Beware of Dog.” He made no mention of a release date for “NYLTH.”

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“Beware of Dog” included the singles “Bow Wow (That’s My Name)” featuring Snoop Dogg, “Puppy Love” and “Ghetto Girls,” and eventually sold more than 2 million copies.

“Made over 20 million off rap. Why be greedy?” Moss wrote in another tweet. “I’m good with everything I accomplished. I made it to the White House.”

Snoop Dogg also bestowed the name “Lil’ Bow Wow” on Moss, who dropped the “Lil’” appellation in 2002. Record producer Jermaine Dupri also was instrumental in launching Moss’ career, collaborating with him on the track “The Stick Up,” which Dupri included on the soundtrack to the Will Smith film reboot of “The Wild, Wild West.”

His success as a recording artist, however, has declined since his peak in the early 2000s. His 2006 album, “The Price of Fame,” was certified gold for sales of 500,000  copies, but his 2009 follow-up, “New Jack City II,” sold just over 30,000.

His new album, “Underrated,” was released July 22 for the Cash Money/Universal Republic and is ranked No. 24,545 on Amazon’s list of best-selling pop-rap albums, and No. 795,915 in music releases overall.

“Retirement only means that it is time for a new adventure,” Moss wrote in yet another tweet. “Over 10 million sold. This the last one. THANK YOU.”

randy.lewis@latimes.com

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