Kanye West seems to have changed his name again, for the second time in his two-decade-long musical career. After debuting by his stage name, the rapper rebranded himself as Ye in 2021, and now, according to legal filings obtained by PageSix, he has changed his name to “Ye Ye.” While Kanye has not confirmed this himself, a lot of legal changes in his life are already happening amid his ongoing legal battles, where a few of his employees at Yeezy have sued him. Earlier, it was reported that the American rapper has granted his wife, Bianca Censori, the power of attorney, which grants her the right to handle his business deals and professional decisions, but Ye has refrained from commenting on this publicly.
Kanye West changes his name for second time
Kanye’s new business documents were filed in California by his chief financial officer, Hussain Lalani. According to the filings, several of Kanye’s businesses, like Yeezy Apparel, Yeezy Record Label LLC, and Getting Out Our Dreams Inc., are now listing him under the name “Ye Ye” as either manager or member.
Back in 2018, Kanye announced that he wanted to go by “Ye.” That same year, he dropped an album with the same name, recorded mostly at his Wyoming ranch. In an interview, he explained the reason behind his decision and said, “I wanted to do something to match my energy,” he told Big Boy in June 2018. “I believe ‘ye’ is the most commonly used word in the Bible, and in the Bible it means ‘you.’ So I’m you, I’m us, it’s us. It went from Kanye, which means the only one, to just being a reflection of our good, our bad, our confused, everything. The album is more of a reflection of who we are.”
In 2021, he filed legal paperwork to officially change his name from Kanye Omari West to his new moniker, under which he released his eighth studio album. Two months later, a judge approved it. Just a few days back, the Donda 2 rapper announced that he is going to shut down his X account, which goes by his real name and instead open a new one. “Ima finally stop using the @kanyewest Twitter cause my name is Ye,” he shared on June 1.
Also read: Kanye West finally makes ‘Donda 2’ available on streaming platforms, 3 years after initial release
In March 2024, Kanye’s former chief of staff, Milo Yiannopoulos, even sent out a letter asking everyone to stop calling him “Kanye West,” which he called his “slave name.” The rapper’s new name, “one of the most recognisable people in the world, on par with presidents and popes,” the letter obtained by PageSix explained at the time. “He didn’t take the decision to change his name, potentially sacrificing some of the immense value captured by the brand of ‘Kanye West,’ lightly. The change was made fully, legally, and permanently. This is who he is now.”
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The new filing for “Ye Ye” comes only a few weeks after Kanye publicly said he would stop spreading antisemitic content on his social media. The Vultures crooner was cancelled and dropped from several brand endorsements following his controversial, abhorrent social media tirades and rants. A few weeks ago, he even dragged in his music colleagues — Jay-Z, Beyoncé, and their kids — and went on to attack Taylor Swift on his social media handle. Kanye West is fighting hard to make his return to the music industry, but fans are amused by the way he is approaching this new chapter, confused by his bizarre name change. “Ye or Ye Ye, who cares?” a fan wrote. “Ye Ye sounds like a guy who auto-tunes his emails,” another said. “Ain’t no one gonna call that sh**,” a third wrote. “Every time he changes name, he starts spitting some new kind of venom.” The paperwork hints that his new name is being used in his businesses. Publicly, Kanye hasn’t officially announced or explained this second name tweak.
