"Feels like I had him as my son, actually," Jermaine Dupri says of his long-time protege Bow Wow. Dupri was one of the formerly "Lil" rapper's first cosigns, producing his debut (at age 12) "The Stick Up" for 1999's Wild Wild West soundtrack. After over a decade of ups and downs, the duo have reunited for "WYA (Where You At?)," the first single off of Dupri's upcoming EP.
"In the past, me and Jermaine's working process was different than it is now," Bow Wow tells Billboard. "How we work now is how I always wanted us to work. I think the whole time, Jermaine just wanted me to grow as an artist and get experience. Now, years down the line, it's incredible when we work with each other." Incredible enough that the rapper just left Birdman's Cash Money Records (where he had been signed since 2009) to focus on working exclusively with Dupri and Snoop Dogg.
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"Whoever my pops with I'm with," Bow Wow continued. "I started it out with Jermaine and Snoop, I'm gonna finish it out with JD and Snoop. Right now, JD's playing my Phil Jackson -- I'm Michael. I always wanted to have my family, to win with my day ones."
"WYA" was the result of a lot of time in the studio -- but nobody said it was all work and no play. "When we're working on party records, I'm telling Jermaine I'm packing the studio with like 30 people," Bob Wow says of recording the tune. "We have a club in the studio."
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"It showed out in the studio amongst a bunch of records that we were working on," Dupri tells Billboard. "It stood out like something that people needed to hear right now, today." Listen to "WYA (Where You At?)" exclusively below: