Rapper and actor Bow Wow had a strange get together with his estranged father on his new reality TV show Growing Up Hip Hop: Atlanta.

The 30-year-old star had no relationship with his dad growing up and decided it was high time for the two to reconnect - and he did it on camera.

As well as making for great TV, Bow Wow, real name Shad Moss, admits he had a great time getting to know his father.

"You see us trying to catch up, but what was weird is that I'm 30 years old now and I told him..., 'This is crazy, this is our first father and son talk; not when I was 12 or 15 or 16 when I really needed you...," he tells Access Hollywood Live.

"I felt like I had to do that for closure. I didn't wanna get a call that something had happened to him, and I didn't want him to go the rest of his life thinking that I hated him, which is not the case.

"I got older and I have a daughter now, who is six. As I became a man I just grew up and matured... He was reaching out to me and I took the time to think about it and I said, 'OK, I'm ready to do it'."

And Bow Wow insists he still would have made the connection happen even if he wasn't filming a TV show.

"I was still gonna have that conversation with him," he adds. "It just so happened that I was filming and it just worked out."

Bow Wow admits his dad has never been too far away from him, showing up at concerts.

He remembers, "I'd get a call: 'Hey man, there's a guy here saying he's your dad', and I'd say, 'That could be anybody...' It's cool."