Bow Wow was born Shad Gregory Moss in Columbus, Ohio, the son of Teresa Rena Caldwell (née Jones) and Alfonso Preston Moss. At age three, he became interested in rap. Under the moniker "Kid Gangsta", he began rapping recreationally at age six; he was also a fan of N.W.A at that age. In 1993, he performed at a concert in Los Angeles, and was noticed by Rapper Snoop Dogg, who subsequently gave him a stage name, "Lil' Bow Wow".

In 1998, at the age of eleven, Bow Wow met record Producer Jermaine Dupri, who helped shape his career. In 1999, the Soundtrack to the movie Wild Wild West featured his song "The Stick Up" with his mentor Jermaine Dupri. At the age of 13, in 2000, he debuted with Beware of Dog under the stage name Lil' Bow Wow. Its debut single was "Bounce with Me", which featured R&B girl group Xscape. The album also included "Bow Wow (That's My Name)" featuring Snoop Dogg, which topped the rap chart, "Puppy Love", and "Ghetto Girls". The Recording Industry Association of America certified Beware of Dog double platinum on March 5, 2001, signifying sales of two million copies. In a 2009 interview, the Rapper claimed that the album had sold over 3 million copies since its release.

Bow Wow has made guest appearances on Brandy's TV sitcom, Moesha, as well as The Steve Harvey Show and Brothers Garcia. He made his acting debut in the film Like Mike which was released on July 3, 2002, in which he starred as a young orphan who gets a shot at playing in the NBA. Before Like Mike he made cameos in All About The Benjamins and "Carmen: A Hip Hopera". Bow Wow also co-starred with Cedric the Entertainer, Vanessa L. Williams, and Solange Knowles in Johnson Family Vacation. Since the success of Like Mike, Bow Wow has starred in several Hollywood films, including Roll Bounce, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift and Hurricane Season. He has also made guest appearances on Smallville and Ugly Betty. He was part of the cast of the fifth season of HBO's Entourage, playing Charlie an up-and-coming Comedian, and Eric Murphy's newest client. He starred in a 2010 comedy film, Lottery Ticket, with Ice Cube. He is working on a documentary on his life titled Who Is Shad Moss?; Bow Wow stated that the documentary goes all the way back to when he was on Death Row Records, and it was released in 2011.

The first album released under his new name was Unleashed in 2003. Its first single was "Let's Get Down" featuring Birdman, the founder of Cash Money Records, which reached #14 on the Hot 100 and #6 on the Hot Rap Tracks charts. The second single was then released, "My Baby", featuring Jagged Edge. Unlike his previous albums, this one was not produced under the mentorship of Jermaine Dupri. Guest appearances include Jagged Edge, Birdman, Mario, and Amerie. Unleashed was certified gold on September 25, 2003. Bow Wow appeared on the remix of JoJo's single "Baby It's You" in 2004.

Wanted was released in 2005. Its first single was "Let Me Hold You", featuring Omarion, and peaked at #1 on the rap chart and #4 on the Hot 100. The next single, "Like You", featuring Ciara, coincided with the beginning of Bow Wow's relationship with the singer. "Fresh Azimiz", featured J-Kwon and Jermaine Dupri, followed and peaked at #23 on the Hot 100 and #6 on the Hot Rap Tracks chart. The album was certified platinum. He also appeared on the remix of Dem Franchize Boyz' "I Think They Like Me", which peaked at #15 on the Hot 100 and #1 on the Hot Rap Tracks. Bow Wow ended his relationship with Ciara in 2006. In 2006, The Price of Fame was released with the lead single "Shortie Like Mine", featuring Chris Brown, peaking at #9 on the Hot 100 and #1 on the Hot Rap Tracks. "Outta My System", which featured T-Pain, reflected on Bow Wow's break-up with Ciara. It peaked at #22 on the Hot 100 and #2 on the Rap chart. The Price of Fame was certified gold.

Bow Wow and Omarion released a collaborative album on December 11, 2007, Face Off. The first single was "Girlfriend", which peaked at #33 on the Hot 100. The second single was "Hey Baby (Jump Off)". He released a mixtape title Half Man, Half Dog Vol. 1 that year. Half Man, Half Dog Vol. 2 was released as a sequel to the mixtape in February 2009. New Jack City II, his sixth album, was released in March 2009 was his first album to include a Parental Advisory: Steven Roberts of MTV News observed that this album explored "the influence of crack cocaine in inner-city communities", and featured such guests as T.I. Three promo singles were released in late 2008: "Marco Polo" featuring Soulja Boy, "Big Girls", and "Roc The Mic". The first official single, "You Can Get It All" featuring Johnta Austin, samples TLC's "Baby-Baby-Baby" and peaked at #55 on the Hot 100 and #9 on the Hot Rap Tracks. On July 4, 2009, his new song "I Know I'm The Shit" off his DJ Drama-hosted mixtape, makes a references working on his new album Underrated and that it is already in production. On August 16, Bow Wow announced his signing to Cash Money Records, joining an all-star roster that already includes Nicki Minaj, Drake, Lil Wayne and Birdman, among others.

In October 2008, for the U.S. presidential election, Bow Wow led a 15-city "Walk Across America" event to register new voters. In 2014, during a charity flag-football game organized by Chris Brown, Bow Wow participated in a Celebrity tribute to Ferguson, Missouri police-shooting victim Michael Brown. In 2016, Bow Wow was involved in a controversy on Twitter when he told his followers that he had decided not to vote in the presidential election that year. In response to a suggestion that refusing to vote dishonors the struggle for civil rights in the United States, Moss said that he did not identify with the fight for civil rights because his heritage was "mixed" and not exclusively black.

Bow Wow planned to release his new then-titled album Underrated on Cash Money Records, but the record underwent a number of delays and, in mid-November 2011, Bow Wow announced on his blog that the record wouldn't be out before 2012. The album was intended to feature Birdman, Boyz II Men, Chris Brown, DJ Khaled, Fabolous, Game, Lil Wayne, Lloyd Banks, Meek Mill, Nas, Nelly, Sean Kingston, Snoop Dogg, DMX, Styles P and Talib Kweli. The first promo single being "For My Hood", featuring DJ Khaled & Sean Kingston. On November 1, 2010, Bow Wow released his first promotional single from the album entitled "Ain't Thinkin' 'Bout You" featuring Chris Brown. The music video was a success on 106 & Park and made the countdown in just one day. Two weeks later, it peaked at #1 on the show's charts and remained #1 for three days. On June 2, 2011, a song from his album called "I'm Da Man", which features Chris Brown, was leaked and wasn't the first official single from the album. On October 24, 2011, Bow Wow released the single entitled "Sweat" featuring Lil Wayne, and though it was thought to be the first official single from the album, it was also dubbed by Bow Wow as a promotional single.

His family supported him through his choice of music as a career. Bow Wow lives in Atlanta, Georgia, along with his mother. Bow Wow has a daughter Shai Moss (born April 27, 2011) with Joie Chavis. Bow Wow was formerly engaged to Erica Mena.

On October 2, 2012, Bow Wow claimed he was broke and only making $4,000 dollars a month and only had $1,500 in his checking account. However, the next day he signed on to be one of the four new co-hosts of BET's 106 & Park. Later on he would address this by saying;

On October 1, 2013, it was confirmed that Bow Wow was chosen as the current host for BET's 106 & Park after former hosts Terrence J and Rocsi retired from the show, it can be seen in over 85 million homes in the U.S., Canada, Japan, United Kingdom, Africa, the Caribbean, Germany and South Africa.

In May 2015, with his long-delayed album with Cash Money still without a release date, Bow Wow announced that he had amicably parted ways with Cash Money Records so he could move on with his music career. He said, "I wanna dictate when my music come out. I'm tired of going to the studio to make records and then I Listen to them. 'Cuz then they get old. Then when y'all ask for new music I don't wanna hear it 'cuz I've been listening to it for two or three months. I just can't be held up up by nobody. It's as simple as that. I got a daughter. I got a family I gotta provide for." On September 27, 2015, Bow Wow signed to Puff Daddy's record label Bad Boy Records. He then named the members of his new management team and finished the post by writing, "Making money won't be the issue. Figuring out where to keep it all is another story!"

In 2016, Bow Wow began hosting a nighttime edition of the Australian Hit Network's radio show RnB Fridays, titled RnB Friday Nights.

On March 15, 2017, Bow Wow, responding to President Donald Trump's criticism of Snoop Dogg's music video for "Lavender (Nightfall Remix)", sent a tweet to Trump in which he threatened to "pimp your wife and make her work for us". In less than 24 hours, Bow Wow deleted the offending tweet.