Bow Wow Hints That His Final Album, ‘Before 30,’ Will Drop In 2022

Cindy Ord/Getty Images for SiriusXM

After initially announcing plans to drop his seventh and final studio album last year, Bow Wow recently gave fans the latest update on the project, hinting that its release could come sooner than later. On Tuesday (Jan. 11), the rap star took to Twitter to reveal the album’s pending arrival, crediting rap legend and longtime mentor Snoop Dogg with helping fuel his inspiration to see it through to completion.

“Snoop told me no way you can retire before me,” the Ohio native wrote. “You owe us one more. Speak on all the real sh*t that we wanna know you been going through. Put it [sic] song and watch it flourish. – nuff said unc!” In January 2021, Bow Wow made an appearance on Hot 97’s Ebro in the Morning show and shared that the album, tentatively titled Before 30, would include numerous contributions from Snoop, who discovered Bow Wow while on tour during the early ’90s.

“I’ma do one more album. It’s gonna be the last one and it’s gonna be called Before 30, and I’ma have Snoop narrate the whole thing,” Bow Wow said at the time. “So, it’s gonna be kind of a different project, ten songs.” Explaining that the title Before 30 was inspired by his long list of achievements prior to turning 30 years old, Bow also revealed that the album would potentially include a reunion between him and R&B star Chris Brown. “I’ma tap back in with [Chris] Brown. I’ma give it to ’em one time.”

News of a potential new album from Bow Wow comes more than two years since his last release, Greenlight 6, in 2019. The sixth installment in his long-running mixtape series, Greenlight 6 was initially slated to feature Soulja Boy, The Weeknd, Trill Sammy, Bone Thugs N Harmony, and Migos, but ultimately saw Bow Wow change course, as the project was comprised of a collection of freestyles and was devoid of any guest appearances.

Before 30 would be Bow Wow’s first studio album since 2009’s New Jack City II, which was released through LBW Entertainment and Columbia Records.