Lil Bow Wow - Bow Wow (That's My Name) ft. Snoop Dogg

What this video is

Released October 17, 2000, as the second single from Lil Bow Wow's debut album Beware of Dog (So So Def / Columbia Records), this video arrived at the precise moment when youth-targeted hip-hop was being industrialized by Jermaine Dupri's Atlanta machine. Shot in Los Angeles, the video leveraged Snoop Dogg's West Coast credibility to frame 13-year-old Shad Moss as a legitimate rap figure rather than a novelty act.…

Why it matters

This video is a defining document of early-2000s pop-rap crossover infrastructure: a major-label machine (Columbia/So So Def) deploying a young Black rapper with an established West Coast co-sign (Snoop Dogg), polished by a top-tier director (Dave Meyers), and launched into a newly minted BET…

The director

David Charles Meyers (born October 19, 1972, Berkeley, CA) is an American music video and film director. He studied Film Production and Philosophy at Loyola Marymount University. He has directed over 200 music videos, earned 12 MTV VMAs including Video of…