Stephen Hill chimed in on the conversation of who invented “106 & Park,” and he sided with Lil Bow Wow, saying that Jermaine Dupri creating the show “might be a bit of an overstep.”
Yesterday (Dec. 18), after Bow Wow heard the news of JD claiming to have invented BET’s 90-minute countdown show, he responded on his Instagram, stating that his former So So Def label head was “cap.”
Mr. 106 deleted the IG post, but he took it to Twitter to express his thoughts on the situation. “JD ain’t create ‘106 & Park’ stop the cap,” he tweeted. “Stephen Hill, Rick Grimes and all the great people in the BET OFFICE and staff created that show. All I did was capitalize off of what they created and made it mine. I would know…. I am Mr. 106! I would never take away from someone’s creativity.”
Bow Wow’s former labelmate, Da Brat, came to Dupri’s defense, suggesting that Bow Wow is discrediting the Atlanta music mogul. She responded in a post of her own.
“Man wtf? I really don’t have the time or patience for this s**t but I got BOTH TODAY,” Da Brat, who put out four albums under JD’s iconic Atlanta imprint, said on Instagram. “Bow what I can’t [let you] do is discredit my big brother JD who u called your dad for so many years cuz that is pretty much the [role] you gave him and instead of sayin h**l no, he rocked with it.”
She continued: “You are being so rude and disrespectful to the person who believed in you, nurtured you, made you a complete star, wrote all yo hits, accepted the challenge when Snoop brought you to him. He has never done ANYTHING to you but help. I ain’t finna [let you] drag the most nonconfrontational person who loved, cared for u and spoiled yo a** for years.
“He isn’t and never would discredit BET execs. He discussed creating ‘106’ b4 it was created so Black people could have their own ‘TRL.’ NO CAP! If this is watchu wanna do… LET’S F**KIN GO! Pull up lil n**ga witcho disrespectful a**. So ungrateful.”
Hill finally chimed in and cleared all of the rumors with his reply to Bow’s comments.
“Yeahhhhhhh, our memories on how ‘106 & Park’ differ GREATLY,” said BET’s former president of programming. “No one challenges that Bow Wow helped launch ‘106’ to great heights… that is for sure true. But ‘CREATED BY ME’ might be a bit of an overstep for ya, my man Love you ALWAYS!!!”
On (Dec. 15), Dupri made an appearance on “The GAUDS Show,” a podcast hosted by Ray Daniels, where he declared that he created “106 & Park” not only for his then-artist Lil Bow Wow, but also to challenge “TRL.”
“106 & Park,” named after the original studio location at East 106th Street and Park Avenue in New York City, made its debut on Sept. 11, 2000 with hosts AJ Calloway and Marie “Free” Wright. On Nov. 8, the then-13-year-old rapper Shad “Lil Bow Wow” Moss came on to the show to drop off his latest album, Beware of Dog. Then the young emcee made history. His first 10 videos all reached No. 1 on the “106 & Park” countdown.
Lil Bow Wow would go on to have the most retired videos in the “106’s” history. “That’s My Name,” “Take Ya Home,” “Puppy Love,” “Thank You,” “Let’s Get Down,” “My Baby” and “Let Me Hold You” were all retired.
The show ended in 2014, but Bow Wow is back on BET as the host of “Happily Ever After.”