After the tragic news that comedian Anthony Johnson passed away surfaced on social media, Bow Wow revealed that the late actor actually helped him get discovered.

On Monday (Sept. 20), the “Shorty Like Mine” emcee took to his Instagram Stories to send his condolences and share a little known fact about how Johnson helped launch his rap career. “Rest in peace to AJ Johnson,” he said in the short clip. “I wanna thank you man for just you know, the comedic relief for everything that you’ve given us — from Friday to House Party 3 to you name it.”

Bow added, “A little history on myself, some things y’all don’t know bout the night I was discovered in ‘93 by Snoop and Dre at the concert. It was actually AJ Johnson who found me in the crowd and picked me to get on the stage. He was the ‘Chronic Tour’ MC during the intermission. And he was the one who pointed me out, ‘Yo little man, come up here and go do your thing.’ From there, that’s when Daz [Dillinger] found me and walked me to the back. So, if it wasn’t for AJ Johnson’s eyes and him picking me out of the crowd — out of 20,000 people in Ohio — I don’t think it would’ve ever been a Bow Wow.”

As REVOLT previously reported, Johnson was found “lifeless” in a Los Angeles store earlier this month. He was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was later pronounced dead. The actor, most known for his role as Ezal in Friday, was only 55 years old. His official cause of death has not yet been released.

Following the tragic news, Ice Cube took to Twitter to send his condolences to his former co-star. “Sad to wake up to the news about AJ Johnson passing away,” the “It Was A Good Day” rapper wrote. “Naturally funny dude who was straight outta Compton at the same time. Sorry I couldn’t bring your character Ezal back to the big screen in Last Friday.”

Check out Bow Wow’s video below.