37-year-old rapper Mos Def is about to pull a P. Diddy (Sean Combs) and change his name in an attempt to change up his image.

Dante Terrell Smith, a Brooklyn MC told MTV’s Sucker Free at last weekend’s “Rock the Bells” that he wants to retire the name and instead be known by “Yasiin.”

Speaking to MTV he said:

“I’m retiring the Mos Def name after 2011,” while adding, “I didn’t want to have to deal with having any moniker or any separation between the self that I see [and what people refer to me as].”

While he may be changing his name to something fresh, he says being called by “Mos Dog” in the future won’t hurt his feelings:

“Mos Def is a name that I cultivated over the years, and it’s a name that the streets taught me,” he says. “A figure of speech that was given to me by the culture and by my environment. I feel I’ve done quite a bit with that name. It’s time to expand and move on.”

I honestly don’t understanding the entire rapper name change scene, if I was to see Mos Def out in the streets I would call him Dante, plain and simple.

Do you like Mos Def’s new name or will you always think of him by his original hip hop name? His name is a brand, I wouldn’t expect to see Nike being called by another name and I don’t get the point of rappers doing it either.

Mos Def To Pull A Puff Daddy And Retire His Name is a post from: The Inquisitr

Shyne, the rapper who was jailed for a high-profile NYC club shooting incident involving P. Diddy and Jennifer Lopez, is set to be released from an upstate New York correctional facility after serving over eight years.

Shyne, born Jamal Barrow and now known as Moses Michael Leviy, has been in prison since 2001. Over the years there has been speculation that Shyne took the fall for higher-profile stars, and Shyne does seem to harbor some animosity towards Diddy, who did not serve time in relation to the incident:

“How do you call a witness to testify against your comrade? That don’t make no sense. If I’m telling you that [the club bouncer] is lying, and you saying ‘Well hey, she’s helping me’ — I’m facing 25 years. You looking at probation,” Shyne explained in an interview with MTV.

“Those types of things are unacceptable. You don’t have to hold my hand, you don’t have to do nothing. But don’t try to hurt me. That’s intentional,” he added.

Diddy called into Hot97 recently and expressed excitement at Shyne’s impending release.

“It’s a blessing that he’s coming home…I spoke to him like a couple of weeks ago and he sounded like he was in good spirits. I know he can’t wait to get home. I know he is definitely going to heat the whole scene up. He was definitely one of [many] talented young artists that I had the pleasure to work with. I’m quite sure he’s been using his time wisely and has some heat.”

Rapper Shyne to be freed from prison today is a post from: The Inquisitr

The trouble probably started up after Sean “Diddy” Combs rapped “They call me Puff Daddy. . . he’s back” on the O’Neal McKnight single remix “Check Your Coats.”

As soon as I saw this gem in US Weekly, I knew that I should ride it out for a while. Just as predicted, after we all thought that Sean “Diddy” Combs wanted his name changed back to “Puff Daddy,” his rep has swiftly gone around squashing rumors left and right. Surprised? Probably not, especially if you’ve already had to adapt by calling him Puffy, Diddy, and Sean Jean in the past!

“This is not true. There is no name change,” his rep told US Weekly after the reports of the change circulated.

One thing that really should have been sorted out was his MySpace page, then. If he didn’t want confusion over what the f- he should be called, do you think he should have posted “This is your boy Puff Daddy!!! Yes Puff Daddy“? His rep probably wants to kick him at the moment, and rightly so.

Talk about the perfect way to get ridiculed. Saturday Night Live is going to have a field day with this one.

Did Sean “Diddy” Combs Change His Name AGAIN or What? is a post from: The Inquisitr