Bow Wow opens up about addiction to 'lean' drugs mixture and painful withdrawal symptoms on podcast

The 36-year-old rapper was asked about his 2007 collaborative album with Omarion earlier this week on The Art of Dialogue podcast'I was on lean. I was sipping so much syrup,' Bow Wow said referencing the combination of promethazine and codeine cough syrup mixed with sodaBow Wow said his addiction worsened to the point that he collapsed after performing with Chris Brown on opening night in Cincinnati

Bow Wow opened up about his battle with drug addiction that once landed him in the hospital.

The 36-year-old rapper was asked about his 2007 collaborative album with Omarion earlier this week on The Art of Dialogue podcast.

‘I was on lean. I was sipping so much syrup,’ Bow Wow said referencing the combination of promethazine and codeine cough syrup mixed with soda.

‘I was drinking that s*** like crazy,’ he added.

Bow Wow, real name Shad Gregory Moss, said the BET documentary series Road To Platinum showed many Styrofoam cups and Hawaiian Punch bottles in the studio.

Bow Wow, shown earlier this month in Atlanta, opened up about his battle with drug addiction that once landed him in the hospital

‘I was losing my f***ing mind. That lean s*** had me f***ed up,’ Bow Wow said. ‘I was just always irritated.’

Bow Wow said his addiction worsened to the point that he collapsed after performing with Chris Brown on opening night in Cincinnati.

‘I went straight to Cincinnati University Hospital. My stomach was so f***ed up that I ended up going back home to Atlanta after the first show,’ Bow Wow said.

He misssed concerts in Baltimore, Detroit and Chicago because he was hospitalized.

Bow Wow said when he got home, ‘the s*** gets worse.’

‘I’m throwing up, I’m shivering in the bed, I’m sweating, I’m going through it,’ he added.

The rapper said he suffered withdrawals from taking lean, but the hospitalization served as a wake-up call.

‘My stomach was so f***ed up. I felt like someone just had a knife [in me]… I never felt this type of pain in my life,’ Bow Wow said.

The 36-year-old rapper, shown in December 2007 in New York City, was asked about his 2007 collaborative album with Omarion earlier this week on The Art of Dialogue podcast

‘I was on lean. I was sipping so much syrup,’ said Bow Wow, shown in January 2021 in Houston, referencing the combination of promethazine and codeine cough syrup mixed with soda

The rapper, shown in February 2007 in Los Angeles, said he suffered withdrawals from taking lean, but the hospitalization served as a wake-up call

Bow Wow gave credit to his late publicist Patti Webster, who died in 2013 at age 49, for keeping his drug addiction out of the public.

She released a statement about his collapse blaming it on dehydration.

‘[There] wasn’t no dehydration. I was f***ed up off lean. We didn’t want the world to know,’ Bow Wow said.

Bow Wow said he beat his addiction to hard drugs and has since learned his ‘boundaries’.