Omarion On Bow Wow's BET Blowup: 'We Want Our Respect As Men'

Omarion On Bow Wow's BET Blowup: 'We Want Our Respect As Men'

Omarion says you shouldn't try to clown him and his partner, Bow Wow.
Everyone is talking about leaked footage from an interview Omarion and Bow did recently for BET's "The Black Carpet." (The uproar was also captured by the cameras following Bow and O for the BET reality series "Road to Platinum.") Bow Wow got upset, ended the interview and walked off with his friend when he felt interviewer Touré was being too much of jokester with the questions.
"Do you take moves from people like Chris Brown?" he asked O. He also pointed out that Lil Wayne's chain is bigger than Bow Wow's. That pretty much sparked it up.
"Don't ask no other disrespectful, stupid-ass questions," Bow said before he got up.
A source close to the "Black Carpet" shoot said the Bow Wow and Omarion interview was a planned prank all along that happened over the summer and that BET informed the duo's label reps of the proposed mischief beforehand. The source also said that the label didn't tell Bow and O because it was supposed to be for a good-natured, "Punk'd"-style show called "Hell Interview." A rep from Sony Music was unable to be reached.
On Tuesday afternoon (December 18) in L.A., fresh from Atlanta doing a show with Bow and Chris Brown at the Philips Arena on Monday, O said there are no grudges, but he and his homie want to be taken seriously.
"Everything is good, man," he said. "You know how it is, sometimes when you're coming up in the game and you as young as we have been, sometimes people think they can — not necessarily push us around, but they feel they can play with us like that. If it had been 50 Cent or Game or any other man who would have stepped up in that interview, it would have went a lot differently. We want our respect, man. We want our respect as men. You don't just throw a man in a spoof interview and disrespect him. You have to respectfully talk to him. We didn't know it was a spoof, but I'm a little bit different when we handle situations. I'm very mild-tempered. I like to think about what I do before I do it. Bow gets upset."
O recently went on another BET program, "106 and Park," and dubbed himself "The King of Dance." He says he has plenty of ammo in his fancy-feet arsenal and knows he will definitely be scrutinized for wearing such a coveted crown, er, jacket — O announced his new title via an embroidered coat.
"It was time for me to claim that spot," he said. "It's gonna be very interesting for me to hold that name down, because I feel like I'm gonna go through something similar like when 'You Got Served' came out. When people saw the film, because it was such a confrontational film and hard-core dance film, I would get ran up in the street like, 'You wanna battle? I wanna battle you.' I felt I wanted to claim [the title]. I'm ready for the challenge. All challengers step up. ... I've been going at it in a professional sense since I was 5. I was a backup dancer at one point for a group that was on RCA. Dancing has been my life and it has been a major part of what I am today. I'mma claim it."
O says he gets a chance to really let loose with his dancing in his and Bow's next video, for "Hey Baby." Their joint LP, Face Off, is in stores now.