Coming up with a stage name seems to be half the fun of being a Hip Hop star! But what happens when you’re an established artist… and you want to change your name? Is that even allowed?
Well, some artists have tried and succeeded, you might know that P-Diddy was once Puff Daddy, but did you know that Pusha T was once known as Terror?
Here are a few artists who tried to change their name, but didn’t quite last.
Young Thug
The Grammy-award-winning artist was swinging for the fences when he decided to change his name to: ‘No, My Name Is Jeffrey.’ Yep, really! Massive points for creativity. It sadly didn’t take.
Lil Xan
The ‘Total Xanarchy’ artist decided to change his name to ‘Diego’ in 2020 (out of concern around the connotations of ‘Xan’, slang for the drug, Xanax). Despite his best efforts, he’s still most commonly known as Xan… for now, anyway!
Lil Bow Wow
You may or may not remember back in 2000 when Lil Bow Wow first took the world by storm as a 13-year-old rapper. He dropped the ‘Lil’ and went by ‘Bow Wow’ for a while & then decided to try a whole new moniker with Shad Moss.
Snoop Dogg
It’s hard to imagine Snoop Dogg as anything else! But he briefly changed his name to ‘Snoop Lion’ upon the release of a Reggae album in 2012.
Mos Def
The Hip Hop O.G and actor was wanting a change when he started to feel that his stage name had been commodified. He legally changed his name to ‘Yasiin Bey’ in 2011, a name he is still identifying by (whether or not anyone else is) to this day!
Ol’ Dirty Bastard
We can understand why he wanted a change! The Wu-Tang Clan rapper has had multiple name changes, first to ‘Big Baby Jesus’, then to ‘Dirt McGirt’. Neither of them seemed to stick!
Killer Mike
The artist was concerned his slightly aggressive-sounding moniker could be holding him back, and in 2009, he decided to try something a little softer round the edges: ‘Mike Bigga’ – we’re kinda glad it didn’t last! You can also check out K-Sera’s interview with Killer Mike here.
What would you change your name to if you had the chance? Hit us up on socials!
