Baton Rouge rapper and unofficial patron saint of the American struggle Boosie Badazz is set to drop his long-awaited sixth studio album Touch Down 2 Cause Hell this week. It’s his first retail project since being released from the notorious Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola last year after a protracted battle with authorities over murder charges prosecutors alleged he confessed to in song lyrics. Noisey will host Boosie’s first ever NYC show at Webster Hall in Manhattan tonight, the evening the album drops.
Touch Down also marks the official change of Boosie’s rap handle from “Lil Boosie” to “Boosie Badazz.” Asked about the switch, he told Noisey that as a grown man and father, the “Lil” no longer made sense. Given Boosie’s fame and artistic legacy, the move shouldn’t amount to more than a blip in an otherwise storied career, but he follows a long line of rappers who changed their monikers to varying degrees of success. Here’s a look at some other notable rapper rebranding attempts and a rundown of how they went.
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Continued below.
Old Name: Sean “Puffy” Combs
New Name: Puff Daddy / P. Diddy / Diddy / Diddy – Dirty Money
What happened: Diddy changed his name so much that “Puff Daddy changes his name a lot, right?” became a Jay Leno-caliber punchline in the late 90s and early 00s, a wink to mainstream America about how self-absorbed these rappers are. Thing is, Diddy didn’t take on new names so much as tweak his old ones. In a 2005 Katie Couric (!) interview he plainly stated that he dropped the “P.” from “P. Diddy” because everyone at his shows was just chanting “Diddy” anyways.
How’d it go? Diddy is such an important figure in American culture that he would have to change his name to Sean “Jet Fuel Can’t Melt Steel Beams” Combs to get any kind of reaction at this point.
Old Name: Various Wu-Tang members
New Name: Several kilos of aliases
What happened: Smoke enough woolies and watch enough kung fu bootlegs and you, too, will start to think your true identity is Golden Arms. Legions of blunted nerds on the internet will spend years keeping track of all of your nicknames, as well as which one of you is related to 60 Second Assassin. They will even buy performance fleece with your logo on it.
How’d it go? Branding has never been a problem for the Wu-Tang Clan, given that their fans are more than willing to do the legwork themselves. Still, Shaolin’s finest aided stragglers by keeping track of nicknames on single and album art.
Old Name: 2pac
New Name: Makaveli
What happened: Having grown too powerful for the American government to suppress, 2pac must have known his assassination was imminent. Before going into permanent hiding in Cuba, he released The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory as “Makaveli.” The album and its artwork contain a full explanation of the conspiracy afoot to anyone willing to smoke enough mid in 1998.
How’d it go? Ask Dave Chappelle.
Old Name: Kool Keith
New Name: Poppa Large / Rhythm X / Dr. Octagon / Dr. Dooom / Black Elvis / Keith Televasquez / Fly Ricky the Wine Taster / Mr. Gerbick / Keith Matthew / etc.
What happened: Keith Thornton contains multitudes; one rap name would never be enough. When he wants to get a little jiggy, he becomes Poppa Large. When armed with seven rounds of space doodoo pistols, he is Dr. Octagon. Mr. Gerbick is Dr. Octagon’s dangerous 208-year-old uncle and is also half shark-alligator, half man. Dr. Dooom killed Dr. Octagon; you can find him in apartment 223. Black Elvis is livin astro and seein robots. He wants you to fax yourself to China. Do this now!
How’d it go? (scene deleted)
Old Name: Peedi Crakk
New Name: Peedi Peedi
What happened: It’s unclear, but the assumption is that in the mid-00s struggle to get his ill-fated Roc-A-Fella album Prince of the Roc a street date, State Property alum Peedi Crakk decided to sanitize his name with the hopes that it would speed the process along. I am also 85% sure I had a mixtape in 2003 where he called himself “Peedi Crazy” a bunch, but nobody else seems to remember this.
How’d it go? Not great. His fight to drop the album soured, and Peedi was, at one point, set to put out an entire album of Jay-Z diss tracks called Camel Hunting Season. It’s hard to say what he’s up to now, but his career is survived by “Flipside,” “Gotta Have It,” “Fall Back,” “One For Peedi Crakk” and one of the most arbitrarily great moments of the rap internet.
Old Name: Tity Boi
New Name: 2 Chainz
What happened: Our dude Tauheed Epps started out as Tity Boi, half of the duo Playaz Circle (along with Dolla Boy). You probably remember “Duffle Bag Boy” (mostly for Lil Wayne’s hook) and you may or may not remember “Look What I Got,” but it’s also pretty good. Then Tity went solo, blew up Atlanta with the Trapavelli tapes and realized his rap name was holding him back.
How’d it go? You don’t land a cameo on 2 Broke Girls as “Tity Boi.”
Old Name: Snoop Dogg
New Name: Snoop Lion
What happened: Successful enough to do whatever the hell he wants and old enough to quit keeping up appearances, Snoop Dogg decided to make a reggae album. He adopted the Iron Lion of Zion for the occasion, morphing into Snoop Lion.
How’d it go? Bumbaclaat!
Old Name: N.O.R.E.
New Name: P.A.P.I.
What happened: For his 2013 comeback album Student of the Game, N.O.R.E. wanted to the style up and bring back some of that late 90s LeFrak City hardbody philosophy, but without alienating fans. He told The Combat Jack Show he went by “P.A.P.I.” so he could disown the stylistic detour at will.
How’d it go? We can cross “Camouflage Unicorns” and “Built Pyramids” off the list of “Queens rap songs we imagined while stoned.”
Old Name: Jay-Z
New Name: JAY Z
What happened? Like most rappers, Jay-Z cycles through aliases as a way to diversify his lyrics and his rhyme schemes. Yeah, Jigga and Hov loosely represent different phases in Shawn Carter’s career, but for the most part all the names are synonymous. The only official name change came in 2013 when he dropped the hyphen and officially became “JAY Z.”
How’d it go? Like a bad joke about how Jay is literally “a business, man.” Only the dullest corporate drones would find importance in a branding tweak this fussy. Only copy editors took the switch seriously, which is in itself a bad joke about copy editors.
Skinny Friedman is yet to change his name. He’s on Twitter.
