When Kanye is on a roll, there is very little anyone or anything can do to stop him, not even something silly like a birth certificate. In between tweaking his still-not-yet-released album, Donda, and reportedly rebuilding his childhood home inside Soldier Field stadium for the album’s Chicago listening event, he is also working on a legal name change. Though Kanye Omari West certainly has a nice ring to it, TMZ reports that Yeezy now wants to be officially known simply as “Ye.”
Kanye filed the documents for the name change in California, where changes are generally unanimously approved unless they seem designed to enable or commit fraud. That doesn’t seem to be the case here, so likely the transition will go through. Even though plenty of past lyrics double down on the “Mr. West” moniker, that will be a thing of Kanye’s past after this… just like his marriage to Mrs. Kardashian West. Yeah, Kim is still using her married name even though it might not be Kanye’s own legal last name very much longer. Perhaps that’s part of the motivation for the shift? Either way, get used to referring to the artist-formerly-known-as-Kanye as the even simpler Ye. Since it’s been his nickname for years it won’t be too jarring, but if he starts switching back and forth like Puff Daddy/P. Diddy/Love, things could get tricky.