Young who? Oh he an opening act.

Not Another One…
written by JusHH

57.

According to one of my favorite sites, OHHLA.com, 57 rappers have used or currently use the prefix Lil’, Little or Young (including all of the ridiculous spellings of this word) in their rap names. Keep in mind this only counts rappers who have actually released a real album. So the seemingly endless amount of mixtape and myspace rappers aren’t even part of this tally.

So to you, the rapper who is thinking of what to call himself, why would you want to give yourself a name that at least 57 other people have?


I thought we passed this stage back in day during the plague of the “Word + Initial” (You know Easy-E, Busy-B… Smooth J lol) and the “group name + number of members in the group” (Treacherous Three, Furious Five, Funky Four Plus One More) combinations. We went a long time without having to deal with an assembly line of copycats until the last few years. But the Lil’s and Young’s are taking over and I don’t know why or how we got here.

If you are under 16 years of age or shorter than 5’ 7” when you begin your rap career then I can understand why you would go with one of those particular prefixes. It’s very relevant to who you are and its probably one of the first things that people notice about you.

But think about it; is either of these names conducive to an emcee that plans on having a long-term career in the game? If you are “young” you will eventually get older and if you are “lil’”, you will grow and your name will become an unnecessary oxymoron. Your name will become an ironic indicator of your downfall. Think I’m joking? Of the 57 names guess how many have had a relevant career that lasted 5 years or more…

6.

So for all you stat nerds out there, if you decide to call yourself Lil’ or Young, you have a 10.5% chance of seeing your career last longer than 5 years. (probably much, much worse if you factor in the nobodies who will never see the light of day) So I guess if you’re 15 years old when you drop, you won’t be around long enough for your name to be a contradiction. (Put that conundrum in your pipe and smoke it)

In a time where established artists have difficulty selling records, it is more important than ever to do what you can to separate yourself from the back. Record companies are looking for sure shots and if you seem just like everyone else, you don’t have a chance in hell. You have to be more original than to throw a Lil’ or Young in front of your name. No one will take you seriously and you will have a difficult time convincing people to buy your music.

So be as creative with your name as you plan to be with your rhymes. You never get a second chance to make a first impression. For an example of what not to do, let me direct you to the gentleman in the picture accompanying this post. He really should have read this post before choosing his name.

His name you ask?

Lil Young (I can’t make this stuff up)

Take a good look though… You’ll never see him again.