Mos Def To Pull A Puff Daddy And Retire His Name


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.

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