R.eal A.nd P.ersonal
Government Issue, Please!
By: Deshair Foskey
Last updated May 18th , 2010

On my journey to bring Hip-Hop Reform to rap music, each step was met with a new obstacle. Not that there isn't anything grand about rap, because there are some great things in motion. However, I would be a fool to believe that these bright spots have enough light to shine through the dark patches.

Rap music is 32-years-old and it is ever changing. Each generation has its own story to tell or its own story handed to them. And since everybody wants to tell their story, everybody needs an alias. From Ice T to Soulja Boy, Kool Moe Dee to Mos Def, LL Cool J to Memphis Bleek, the alias is the first branding opportunity artists have. Your alias is a sign of your times. It's sacred. And it is so much a symbol that simply by changing your alias, you often leave behind the stained image of it. With that being said, today, it has become apparent that new rappers are running out of aliases. 

Just the other day, an email came across my inbox with the name of a new artist: POPCORN. Really?! Another email came through that introduced YOUNG RIOT. Another rapper called himself, Jigga. Really?! Jigga, please! Let me say this, calling yourself 'Young' anything, and you're not under the age of 21, is unacceptable. Also, being 'Young' anything makes it pretty hard to be searched online when hundreds of other emcee's are using it. What's next?! A rapper named 'Second Hand'? Wait, how about 'Loose McGee'? And why are there so many rappers with 'J' or 'Jay' when we already have a Jay-Z (which was created from Jaz-O, his mentor)? We need a shift.

So I propose that starting in 2011, new emcee's that sign to a label MUST use their Government name. I understand that an alias allows you to slide into a different role in your life, or outside of your life. And I also understand that most of us grow up with nicknames that were given to us by family and friends. Some of you might be fathering a child to a woman that only knows you by your street alias (a damn shame). But after having a conversation with Swizz Beatz last week, I couldn't wait on getting this movement out there. He stated that after all these years, he graduated from being "Swizz" to Kasseem Dean. I took this statement as a sign of growth; of elevation. I also took this as the reason for many artist that leave their alias behind; once the success grows beyond the alias and your friends would like to call you Mr. Dean, you have to progress. You can't have people calling you Bow Wow during your mid-life crisis! 

There comes a moment when being called Shad Moss is more fitting. So how about it?! Let's start the Government Name Movement! Only you can keep your friend from calling himself "Treasure Chester."

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