Mos Def Would No Longer Like For You To Refer To Him As Mos Def

Says Mos Def to MTV:

“I’m retiring the Mos Def name after 2011. I’m actually doing it. Yasiin. That’s it. Mos Def is a name that I built and cultivated over the years, it’s a name that the streets taught me, a figure of speech that was given to me by the culture and by my environment, and I feel I’ve done quite a bit with that name and it’s time to expand and move on. Also, I didn’t want to have to deal with having any moniker or separation between the self that I see and know myself as.”

Def, whose real name is Dante Terrell Smith, is rumored to have rejected the following new names before finally settling on Yasiin:

– M. Deffy

– Dante Culdeffer

– Mas Tacos

Anyway, here he is discussing the name change with MTV…

https://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:uma:video:mtv.com:688550/cp~id%3D1656633%26vid%3D688550%26uri%3Dmgid%3Auma%3Avideo%3Amtv.com%3A688550

(HT: Vulture. Pic via.)