Mos Def to Change Rap Name in 2012

*Mos Def, whose real name is Dante Terrell Smith, has announced that he’s letting go of his rap name at the end of 2011 and will take on the new moniker, Yasiin.

He told “Mtv2′s Sucker Free” show, “Mos Def is a name that I built and cultivated over the years; it’s a name that the streets taught me, a figure of speech that was given to me by the culture and by my environment, and I feel I’ve done quite a bit with that name and it’s time to expand and move on.

“Also, I didn’t want to have to deal with having any moniker or separation between the self that I see and know myself as.”