It’s been almost four months since Bow Wow (real name Shad Moss) and his girlfriend Kiyomi Leslie (real name Leslie Holden) were both arrested and charged with battery after a physical altercation. Growing Up Hip Hop: Atlanta recently returned for a fourth season, and the attack, arrest, and fallout are the central part of show star Bow Wow’s story line. As you probably would have guessed, he’s been playing it all off as completely Kiyomi’s fault. Also you probably but have guessed, Kiyomi is having NONE of it!
Kiyomi initially posted a YouTube video just before the Season 4 premiere with her side of what happened (her clip is embedded below). She explains that she and Bow Wow had gotten back together on the down low, and things went south when the two were at a party and Bow Wow took exception to Kiyomi talking to another guy who was there.
From Kiyomi’s YouTube video:
We were coming back from a party and he got upset because he felt like I was being too friendly to a guy. And he proceeded to say negative comments to me. He was, like, just using demeaning, belittling words to me in front of his friends.
And we then got to the house, and a lot of the times fights and things happen when when you know a person — you know how they can escalate, so you just want to stay out of their way. And so I tried to do that when we got on the elevator, but he was already to the point of no return with his attitude and he felt like he had been disrespected.
And then, you know, we — it escalated once we got into the room. You know, I decided that I was gonna pack up my bags and leave, and that was the turning point of the whole relationship — the whole situation started when I started packing my bags. He wanted to fight. He wanted to tell me to leave and everything. And I can’t really go into full detail because we are still, you know, handling everything in court. But that’s just the gist of what happened.
And I feel like a lot of people believe that because he had scratches on his face, and because his team got in front of the situation first and said that I was drunk and belligerent, you know, that I was drunk and belligerent — that I was the one who started this argument. And I wasn’t, you know. I was a woman defending myself, you know.
Although I see a lot of people making jokes, like, “Oh, she’s taller than him. That girl is bigger than him. She gonna let little Bow Wow –” like, it’s still the fact that he’s a man at the end of the day. Like, he still has more power. He still has more strength than me. And at the same time, it’s like nobody wants to really fight somebody that they love and that they care about, so at the end of the day I didn’t want to hurt him. But, I also didn’t want him to hurt me. I also wanted to make it out of that situation, because a lot of the times women don’t, and I feel like I was in fight-or-flight mode and I couldn’t take flight. So, I had to fight my way out.
Kiyomi explains that people bought into the spin that Bow Wow and his team put out due in part to what appears on screen. “People thought that I was drunk and belligerent,” Kiyomi says. “And because of how they portrayed me on last season of Growing Up Hip Hop, I feel like the world believed, you know, this was actually me beating him up. And it was a woman who was fighting for her life, is what I felt like, you know.”
Here is Kiyomi’s full video:
On Thursday night’s episode of GUHHATL, Bow Wow continued to paint Kiyomi as the aggressor while explaining what happened to Angela Simmons:
BOW WOW: What happened was, the Super Bowl comes and we go to a party. We get to arguing — I’m telling her, you know, you can’t be looking crazy when we’re out here in public, you know what I’m saying? Just tone it down a little bit. Jermaine’s mom right here. Just relax. Act like you been somewhere before, you know what I’m sayin’? So, the next thing you know, it go down.
ANGELA: Wait, I’m confused though. Where do the cops come in? Did you call them or she call them?
BOW WOW: She made a call. They come. And they walk away. They didn’t hear nothing. It was quiet. Called again. They pull up. They ask to see me. I’m scratched up, I’m bruised up, got bit. My [BLEEP] — My [BLEEP] healing up now, [Bow Wow pulls up his shirt] but you can probably still see it a little bit.
BOW WOW: But it was — You know, she — I got bit! I had to get a God [BLEEP] tetanus shot! And the only reason why they took me was because of the things that the individual was saying to the cop. I didn’t hear it, but from what I’m hearing, it was along the lines of, “Y’all always do this when it come to a rich mother [BLEEP] or — or a rapper, or famous people.” I think her mindset was on, “I’m not going to jail. Only he going.” I’m beat the [BLEEP] up! Like, I’m clawed, scratched — I’m beat the [BLEEP] up. So why am I going for? “Why is y’all taking me?!” Like, “This is my place.”
BOW WOW: So that pretty much sums everything up to pretty much what happened.
The episode seemed to really push Kiyomi over the edge: she took to Twitter for a series of furious tweets and included accusations of past abuse at the hands of Bow Wow. She mentioned one instance in which he allegedly punched her while she was pregnant and she lost the baby.
Here are all of Kiyomi’s tweets in order, including a few that she was responding to:
Bow Wow hasn’t responded on Twitter, but I am guessing that he is not done talking about the fight and the arrest on the show. Be sure to tune in for new episodes of Growing Up Hip Hop: Atlanta airing Thursday nights at 9/8c on WE tv. And be sure to tune in to Kiyomi’s Twitter right after!
Asa Hawks is a writer and editor for Starcasm. You can contact Asa via Twitter, Facebook, or email at starcasmtips(at)yahoo.com
