Bow Wow's Big Plans

Rapper Bow Wow has had his share of success in his young life. His debut CD, 2000's "Beware of Dog," sold more than 2 million copies thanks to strong songs such as "Bounce With Me," "Bow Wow (That's My Name)" and "Ghetto Girls," and his innocuous rhymes. His latest, similarly styled "Doggy Bag" has sold a million. He's listed in the "Guinness Book of Records" as the youngest solo rapper to hit No. 1.

The young artist has already headlined his own movie, "Like Mike," which yielded the hit song "Basketball" from its soundtrack. And Bow Wow is the main attraction on the Scream Tour II.

Talk about movin' on up. And growing up. The 15-year-old recently changed his name, going from Lil' Bow Wow to the presumably more mature Bow Wow (this may put some distance between him and the other major "Lil" rapper to follow him, Lil' Romeo).

"Everything is all good," he says of his young career, which included an appearance with Madonna at the 2001 Grammy Awards. "I love being an entertainer. I'm doing what I want to be doing. I wanted to do this forever. I always knew this was going to happen, that I would do this eventually."

Bow Wow doesn't worry that the futures of child stars often aren't guaranteed. Another of Dupri's child acts, the duo Kris Kross, released a few CDs before disappearing into obscurity just a few years back.

"I'm just the type of person who knows what he wants to do," Bow Wow says. "I know right from wrong. I've learned from other peoples' mistakes, and I do what I have to do."

Despite the impression Bow Wow has made so far, he already knows he's not in the rap game for the long run.

He plans to get out while the getting is good and looks forward to moving on to what he really wants to do.

"I don't want to do this forever. I do want to try different things in life, go to college (Duke University) and do some other things like play basketball. And I want to be a sports agent," he says. "Sports was also always a dream."