Bow Wow was 13 when he became the youngest solo rapper to score a #1 hit. He’s 21 now and about to vote for a U.S. president for the first time. The singer and actor, whose real name is Shad Gregory Moss, feels a duty to help motivate young people to get involved because, as he points out, they are tomorrow’s leaders. He’s leading a voter registration campaign called Walk Across America. Bow Wow spoke with Current Events student reporter Kaitlyn Ali about his campaign, his new foundation, and his future plans.
Kaitlyn: What message do you want to send with your Walk Across America campaign?
Bow Wow: The message is to try to get all of the youth to vote, to bring the awareness out to them, and to let them know how important it is to get out and vote because it is a very important time that is actually occurring right now in our country. We want to make sure that the people from ages 18 and up get the opportunity to register to vote.
Kaitlyn: Why do you feel the need to encourage young people to vote?
Bow Wow: Number one, it’s the youth. My fans have always been the younger generation. A couple of years ago, when we had a chance to vote, the numbers were not what we thought they were going to be. This time, we have a second chance to change those numbers. So I figured we need the youth to vote and that nobody else could lead them to the polls but myself. I felt it was my duty and my responsibility to get out here and encourage the kids to do the right thing.
Kaitlyn: Have you been keeping track of how many people have registered to vote as a result of Walk Across America?
Bow Wow: In one particular college, we got over 200 kids in one day to actually register to vote, which is very, very, very huge, so hopefully that can make a difference. We’ve gotten so many people registered from being in universities and also just walking down the street.
Kaitlyn: If Barack Obama wins the election, how would you feel about him being the first African-American president?
Bow Wow: I think that if he wins it would be great because what a lot of people don’t realize is right now we’re actually living in history. It just shows that we’ve come a long way. We’ve come a long way throughout racism, throughout everything. And not only seeing the first African American that could potentially be the next president but also we had the opportunity to see a woman become the president, which was definitely huge as well.
Kaitlyn: I hear you’re launching a new foundation called Follow the Leader. What do you want the foundation to achieve?
Bow Wow: I feel that I’m the leader of the youth movement. So by me being a positive person and a positive role model for the youth, everything they see Bow Wow do, I want them to be able to say, “You know what, I can do it just like Bow Wow but I can do it better than Bow Wow.” My goal is to keep the kids off the street, make sure they stay in school, get a good education, and make sure that they definitely become something in life. With my help, hopefully they can achieve that.
Kaitlyn: Is there anything you want to say to your fans?
Bow Wow: Stay in school. Stay focused. Get a good education and if there’s a goal in life that you want to achieve, stay focused, stay grounded. Go for it. Listen to your parents. Everything starts in the classroom. You got to make sure you study hard, you work hard, and you set high standards for yourself and that you achieve them, and don’t let nobody tell you that you can’t because you always can. And always make sure that you believe. If you do that, you should be OK.
Kaitlyn: I heard you will be in a couple of movies? Could you give us a little hint of what to expect?
Bow Wow: Right now, I’m on Entourage. But I have another movie coming out on Christmas Day called Hurricane Season and it stars myself and Oscar-winner Forrest Whittaker. So I want to make sure everyone go to the movies Christmas Day. So you can have Bow Wow for Christmas, too.
From: http://www.cenewsblog.com/
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