EDITORIAL REVIEWS Bow Wow Price Of Fame .COM Bow Wow opens his fifth CD The Price of Fame with a solemn interview clip in which the rapper/actor discusses the mental breakdown dealing with the price of fame thus setting the stage for a deeply emotive release. For a handful of tracks he does exactly that showing fans--and his competition-- just how refreshing that can be. The disc s first single Shortie Like Mine featuring fellow teen heartthrob Chris Brown finds Bow Wow spitting rapid-fire rhymes and embedding lyrical skills with his especially melodic rap style. Tell Me combines those same talents mixed with surprisingly candid subject matter: a plea to get his ex to come back to him. As he implores I m a whole different individual now/everybody but you invisible now to compelling back beats and samples (thanks to co-Executive Producer Jermaine Dupri) it feels like the pair could create a new genre: emo/electro/hip-hop. Dupri s amped-up hooks drive the disc staying consistent while Bow Wow s identity oscillates between a lover and a wanna-be gangsta. Other songs worth noting are the hidden track an R. Kelly duet dubbed I m a Flirt and the cheeky Damn Thing featuring Da Brat. On the downside a number of tunes contain far too much thug posturing: Bet That 4 Corners (featuring Lil Wayne) and the 50 Cent-inflected On Fiya are filled with clich d car/money/thug lyrics causing Bow Wow s uniqueness to get lost in the flow. --Denise Sheppard