Shad Gregory Moss was born on march 9, 1987 in Columbus, Ohio. The mother of Shad, Theresa Caldwell, raised her son without any help. For a while, Theresa worked three jobs. At a reception desk, at a department store and in a gas station. Shad didn't see his mother much. "I refused to let my son grow up the way I grew up," Theresa explained to Ebony. "Bow had to grow up fast. I was young, I couldn't afford a babysitter. Shad had to stay home by himself at three years old. I had to do what I had to do."

Alone, Shad used his imagination. Most kids his age protended to be sports stars, police officers or firefighters. Shad pretended to be a rapper. Hip-hop music was the sound track for Shad's life. He listened to everyone from Snoop Dogg to Jay-Z, his tastes influenced by his mother. He heard it in the car and in the living room. He watched rappers on TV and listened to them on de CDs Theresa played. "After watching Snoop and NWA, it just made me wanna rap so much," he told MTV News. "So, as I kept listening to them I would just walk around the house and rap. I was rapping about, you know, just little kid things at the age of six, like toys, school, 1, 2, 3... stuff like that." He made up the stage name Kid Gangsta and got Theresa to sign him up for local talent contests. He won a few, but Shad was just getting started.

In 1993 Snoop was coming to Columbus. Shad begged his mom to take him to the concert. Along with former NWA member Dr. Dre, Snoop was promoting The Chronic Tour. Named after Snoop's latest album, a celebration of a protent form of the illegal drug marijuanna, The Chronic Tour wasn't a place most parents would consider taking their six-year-old. Then again, Theresa wasn't most parents. She took Shad everywhere. Besides, babysitters were expensive.

During a pause in the show, the announcer's voice carried over the crowd. Did anyone to come up and rap? Shad's hand shot up. That moment, his life changed. The crowd began to cheer. Shad felt himself being lifted up - over his mother's head, over the heads of the fans. Suddenly he was on stage. Looking out into the audience, he saw the thousands of people there for his heroes, for Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre. Now they were all waiting, waiting for him.

Between sets for musicians, fans were asked if they wanted to get up on stage and rap. Most of them weren't very good. So when Shad approached the microphone, nobody was expecting much. They were about to be surprised. He wasn't very nervous. He'd done this before, at local talent shows and in his living room. Now it was Shad's time to shine. "He'd pick up my kitchen untensils and combs and brushes and start rapping." his mother, Theresa Caldwell, told JET Magazine. "I noticed it was something he liked and he just progressed as he got older."

By that evening in 1993, Shad was ready. He freestyled, making up the rhymes as he went along. Soon the audience began to clap, keeping the beat set by the kid with the microphone. After his set, Shad was rushed backstage. The headliner wanted to meet him.

Snoop had heard Shad's performance. He was impressed. Until then Shad's stage name had been Kid Gangsta. Backstage the older hip-hop star looked at Shad and saw something familiar. He saw the same energy, the same stage confidence, and the same skills he had. He looked at Shad and gave him a new name; Lil' Bow Wow. Snoop had just one question for the new kid: Would he like to join the tour? Theresa agreed.

AT AGE 6, SHAD WAS RAPPING IN FRONT OF PACKED STADIUMS AS PART OF SNOOP DOGG'S CHRONIC TOUR.

For the rest of the summer, Shad (now known as Lil' Bow Wow) played before packed stadiums. When the summer ended, so did the tour. It was time to go back to school and play with kids his age. Except Shad still wanted to rap. He wanted to follow in the footsteps of his hero Snoop Dogg. Soon he'd follow him all the way to Death Row.

Back home in Columbus, Shad tried to enjoy the kinds if things most six-year-olds enjoy. He played video games and rode his bike. He made a few friends at school. As his manager, Theresa received a percentage of Shad's income; the rest was in the bank waiting for him to turn 18. While money was less of a problem than it had been, Shad missed the life he'd had that summer. It's tough to be a normal six-year-old when you've spent your summer vacation entertaining thousands of people.

Finally, Shad got the call he'd been waiting for. Snoop Dogg wanted him to record a song for his next album 'Doggystyle'. With luck, maybe he could sign a contract with the label Snoop performed for, Death Row Records.

For Shad, rapping on Snoop's album was a word apart from freestyling on stage. He had to memorize someone else's words, and them say them again and again, perfectly. This wasn't easy. ''I was in the studio with Snoop, and he had written something for me,'' Shad explained to Billboard.com. ''I really couldn't get it. They were yelling at me and I did't like. I wanted to quit. I went back home and studied that rap. I went back the next day and showed them I could do it.''

Los Angeles gave Shad more than just recording experience. Another Ohio native gave Lil' Bow Wow his next big break. At the time, Arsenio Hall hosted on of the most popular talk shows on late-night television.

When Shad performed, he was seen by millions. People were beginning to recognize his name. Although he was in elementary school, he started getting into nightclubs and going to parties. He often bumped into Jermaine Dupri.

Based out if Atlanta, Dupri had been a producer for the kid duo Kris Kross. Better known for their backwards pants than their rapping, the pair had a major hit with the song "Jump."

Shad knew Dupri could help him with his Debut. The producer wasn't interested. He wanted a performer with a career, not another one-hit-wonder novelty act. Soon, Dupri's lack of interest wouldn't matter. Death Row's Knight seemed to live the life his artists rapped about. He was sentenced to nine years in jail for assault. Without Knight, most of the artists left the label. It quickly ran out of money. Shad's dreams of a music career seemed to go out the door as well. Without a label or a deal he returned to Columbus, Ohio.

After freestylin' on stage and sharing a recording studio with Snoop Dogg, adjusting to school and life back in Columbus, Ohio, was even harder than before. "Bow was devastated," Shad's mother told The New York Times Magazine. "He'd say, 'Please call Snoop, Mommy. Tell him I want to go back out there.' But when I'd call up Death Row Records, they were like, 'We don't know no Bow Wow.' Click." The harsh sound of a dial tone seemed like the last note for Shad's career. Snoop came to the rescue. After Knight was handed a prison sentence, Snoop left the label . Soon after, he gave Theresa the number of another record executive.

"JERMAINE DUPRI REALIZED SHAD COULD DO SOMETHING MORE THAN JUST MAKE MUSIC"

Steve Prudholme worked at Epic Records, a division of Sony. After listening to Lil' Bow Wow's music and watching a tape of the young rappers's performance, he sent the material to a music producer in Atlanta: Jermaine Dupri. 

When he'd met Shad in Los Angeles, Dupri didn't think he wanted to produce him. After watching the tape, he changed his mind. Any doubt he had was erased when he put 11-year-old Shad up during a Jay-Z show. Both the hip-hop star and the producer agreed that Shad had the skills and stage presence of an adult. By then Dupri realized Shad could do something more than just make music.

In 1998, Shad and his mother relocated to a home near Dupri's Atlanta recording studio. Dupri convinced Theresa to let Dupri's father, Michael Mauldin and his sister, Lucy Raoof, comanage her son's career. She was nervous about giving up control, but quickly realized that without Dupri's help, Shad might not have a career at all. She agreed, so long as she could remain involved. 

WHEN THE SINGLE "BOUNCE WITH ME" HIT NUMBER ONE, SHAD BECAME THE YOUNGEST PERSON IN HISTORY TO HAVE A TOP SINGLE.

In 1999, Lil' Bow Wow made his debut with the song "Stick Up" on the Wild Wild West soundtrack. One year later, Lil' Bow Wow's debut CD, Beware of Dog, was releashed. With Dupri's production, guest vocals from well-known artists like Snoop Dogg and Shad's own trademark voice and fast raps, the CD was an immediate hit and sold over 2 million copies. When the single "Bounce With Me" hit number one, Shad became the youngest person in history to have a top single. He even earned a listing in The Guinness Book of World Records.

Yet while his album went double platinum, many asked the same question. Was he another Kris Kross? Would he have a musical career or be a one-hit wonder? The answer would be on his next CD.

Dupri brought in new producers, the Neptunes, who'd worked with many pop stars. They helped increase the album's mass appeal. The extra effort paid off. Releashed in 2001, "Doggy Bag" went platinum, selling over a million copies its first month. It's first single, the ballad "Thank You," was written because, as Shad told Jet Magazine, "I felt like I wanted to tell everyone how much I appreciated the love they gave me on the first album. I was real happy and wanted everyone to know." 

Lil' Bow Wow's first two albums sold four million copies. He's headlined a pair of concert tours, Scream and Scream 2, performing before thousands of fans. There seemed to be just one thing left to do: act. 

Like rapper Will Smith, Bow started small - on the small screen of television and in smaller parts in movies. He played Jalil in Carmen: A Hip-Hopera opposite Beyoncé Knowles of Destiny's Child on MTV. He had a role in All About the Benjamins. His chance to be a star arrived with a movie about hoop dreams written just for him. 

"The inspiration was Bow Wow," Michael Elliot admitted in an interview with Variety. Elliot had just finished a script for Fox and everyone wanted Shad to star in it. "He loves basketball, loves Michael Jordan and he's an exceptional basketball player. 

Like Mike was set to premiere on July the third in 2002. Shad had proven himself as an actor as well as a rapper. He was nominated for a Young Artist Award for Best Leading Young Actor. 

AS A TEENAGER, SHAD UNDERSTANDS HOW DIFFICULT THE TRANSITION WILL BE FROM KID RAPPER TO ADULT ARTIST.

Over the next year, Shad divided his time between the two occupations. He read scripts and met with producers for films while working, with top producers like the Neptunes, Bone Crusher and Lil' Wayne on his third album. By that time, Shad decided to drop the Lil' from his name. He was 16 and almost an adult. In fact, during the recording process, Shad's voice changed. His voice grew deeper - two octaves lower - during the work on his third album. Although the incident stretched the time it took to finish the album, Shad didn't think it would hurt his sales. In August 2003, his third CD, Unleashed, was releashed. In its first two months in stores, it sold over 500,000 copies. He also launched his own cloting line called Shago in june 2003.