NEW YORK — "Can they stop please?" Bow Wow said recently with a sly grin, grousing over all the questions he's getting about his relationship with Ciara.

The two were seen holding hands backstage at the BET Awards, and recently, in Trenton, New Jersey, during the rehearsal and first show of Bow's Scream Tour IV, she was backstage holding him down.

Well, if you still have not gotten the picture, Bow and Ciara have a video for the teen rapper's next single, "Like You," in the can and ready to roll out in the next few weeks. Bow said after the clip debuts, their relationship will be obvious to everyone.

"Everybody's been asking, 'You dating? You dating?' " he said. "Yeah, I'm dating. I'm not gonna tell y'all no. I'm getting older, it's time for me to step it up. The song speaks for itself. The record 'Like You' is self-explanatory. Everybody wants to butt into my personal life — that's a real record, it says it all. Hopefully that will answer all the questions."

Ciara sings, "I ain't ever had nobody show me all the things/ That you done showed me/ In a special way I feel when you hold me/ We gon' always be together, baby/ That is what you told me and/ I believe it."

Bow raps on the record about no other girl comparing to C — as he calls her — and he pledges to treat her right. In the video, the two spend plenty of time getting affectionate on the phone before the surprise ending.

"The record with me and C is going to be even bigger than the record with me and [Omarion, 'Let Me Hold You']. It's a crazy record.

"It's funny, working with her, because I've known her for so long," he added. "It's funny and it's weird to look at her as an artist. ... I respect her a lot. She knows I ride or die for her. I respect everything that girl does, and she respects everything I do. I met C two years ago. She was actually an extra in my mini-movie for my tour when I did my Unleashed album. We kept in contact ever since and look at her now. She's blown up, she's holding it down. I love the girl to death. She's a sweet girl. I told her, 'You hold it down on your end, and I'mma hold it down on my end.' "

Bow's latest LP, Wanted, debuted #3 on the Billboard albums chart, and his Scream IV Tour started last week as well (see "Bow Wow, Omarion Salute Jay-Z, Kelly, Vandross On Scream IV"). Life couldn't be better for an 18-year-old.

"I feel like I've been baptized," he beamed. "I feel like I've been dipped in water and brought back out again. I feel like back at my original standpoint."