The rivalry between Lil Bow Wow and Lil Romeo used to be real.

During the late '90s and early 2000s the youngest headliners in rap made you choose sides if you were a fan of either — however, according to one of them — that’s not how it was supposed to be.

After Bow Wow announced his retirement from rap just a few days ago, Lil Romeo (who now is better known as Romeo Miller) took to Instagram and explained the relationship he and Bow Wow had and the regrets he has about what went down back then.

“Dear young Superstar, as kids we should've worked together, we should've toured together, we should've made movies together,” he captioned next to a pic of the two from their younger years. “The funny thing is, I never looked at Bow as competition. The world made it that way. When he was 14 I was only 11. From them late nights of us and @chrisbrownofficial hooping at UCLA (Fyi I bust everybody a** ha), to my teen dance parties, he was there.”

Romeo continued by explaining how he believes the media made everything about beef, rather than reveal their friendship.

“What the WORLD doesn't know is that ... Once upon a time, Bow was like my big lil bro,” he wrote. “Although we had different views, he inspired me as a kid. Sadly this generation only cares about now, and oddly laughs at history. My pops always taught me to give people their roses while they could still smell them. Just some facts about the Lil Romeo x Lil Bow Wow saga for the fans. #tbt #wordswithrome.”

Bow Wow (real name Shad Moss) announced his retirement Sunday (August 7) in an Instagram post. The news came alongside him revealing his final album title, NYLTH, which he says will be executive produced by Snoop Dogg.

Check out Romeo Miller’s Instagram post about Bow Wow below.