Lil Xan says he’s finally following through on the suggestion he made two years ago to change his stage name. Xan shared a post on his Instagram today explaining that he’s in the process of officially changing his brand to Diego — his real first name.
He previously said, “I thought about changing my name to Diego,” as a reaction to the anti-opiate backlash sweeping hip-hop in the wake of the overdose deaths of Lil Peep and Mac Miller. However, back then he determined, “For right now, we gon’ stay Lil Xan. Later down the road, I’ll change it to Diego.”
It looks like “later down the road” has arrived. In the post announcing the name change, the newly-christened Diego reasoned that he was “leaving the old in the past” and also updated his profile picture while he was at it, because “so many people got butt hurt that I picked a Lil Uzi Vert edit.” He concluded, “I’m restarting and reinventing myself.”
A reinvention may be just what he needed to course correct his listing career, which stalled after a strong start thanks in part to the anti-drug sentiment against him that he just couldn’t spin away. Diego also faced a backlash from old school rap fans after he called Tupac’s music “boring.” After entering rehab and taking a break from rap, it seems the now 23-year-old rapper has a fresh perspective and possibly a second shot at hip-hop stardom.
Check out Diego’s name change announcement from Instagram above
