When Are You Too Old To Be Young or Too Big To Be Lil?

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We all know today’s hip hop scene is for the young. Not just the music and the content but any trip to the record store and it will look like a hood elementary roll chart. Yung such and such, Lil this and that. Now don’t get me wrong I ain’t hatin, by any means get your money. But is Jeezy, (age 30) really that young? 

A recent debate between Killer Mike, Diamond,  and David Banner brought up the issue that maybe we are a little saturated with the youngster names and we should draw a line. “At  some time Young Dro has to become Old Dro, and I feel with names like that we set ourselves up to that even more, becoming and sounding outdated”, expressed Killer Mike in the round table discussion. I partly agree. I think realistically what happens is that these artists think of their names at a very young age and don’t realize that if all this marketing and work is put into this name it can’t just be changed. 

For instance Juvenile. Juvie has been rapping since before he was even a teenager so at the time this name fit. But now in his 30’s it does sound a little funny calling him Juvenile.  However what is he going to do just change his name? This would almost diminish all the work he’s put in under that name and throw fans off.  Do you think with the status he’s risen to now, if given the choice, Wayne would still stick the lil’ moniker? Keep in mind he got the name at age 11. What about B.G.? To the uninitiated this stands for Baby Gangsta. Once again surely fitting for a 10 year old rapper to come out with, but if you were to call a grown man who earns his living off the streets a baby gangsta there most likely would be problems. I remember as a kid my older brother and his friends calling each other BG’s when they would play around and diss each other. Hell Eazy-E even called Dr. Dre a BG in a diss song towards the producer. So does he still want to be seen as just a baby gangsta? I doubt it, but once again this name is his livelihood and who wants to risk their next meal just because they’ve grown a lil’?

Some do risk it though as seen with Lil’ Bow Wow just now being Bow Wow. Has it affected him that much? I don’t think so as he seems just as popular with his fans as he did then. I think rappers need to be willing to step out and show that they are men. We must be aware that hip hop is still very hated on and criticized by mainstream, i.e. white America . We have to represent our culture well and show that we have advanced. Remember we want them laughing with us, not at us. 

So for the next future star out there when picking a name, remember you could actually make it, so think ahead and know you won’t be young or lil’ forever and you might not always want to be represented as such.