Don’t Call Him “The Game”: A Brief History of Hip-Hop Aliases

Today The Game inexplicably announced that from now he should be referred to only as "Game": Why? Cause f**k "the"s, that's why. Still Jayceon Terrell Taylor's name change doesn't even rank very high when measured against hip-hop's historical line-up of aliases. From Diddy to Roll Fizzlebeef, here's the best and worst aliases the game (I mean the rap game) has served up do far.

Real Name: Jayceon Terrell Taylor
Original: The Game
Now: The name's Game, just Game. Game is now insisting that he's a one-word name man and that he's officially dropped the "The". Hey, it's a recession and the man's got a new album coming out. Just think of all the money he'll save on printing costs by shortening his name. Ink ain't cheap. On the other end of the spectrum is the Clipse, who everyone calls "The Clipse" (like I just did) even though their official name is just "Clipse". No word yet on whteher "The Alchemsit" is also considering any changes.

Real Name: Sean John Combs
Original: Puff Daddy
Now: Combs might just be the worst namer in hip-hop history. He started out as "Puff Daddy", a name that makes him sound like a rap breakfast cereal, and then moved onto just "Puffy" before switching to P. Diddy and now, finally, just plain "Diddy" (a name, by the way, that makes my three-year-old nephew giggle every time he hears it.). But Diddy's horrible name selection doesn't just stop with him, he's also come up with three atrocious names for his acts: Da Band, Danity Kane and Day 26; two of which no longer exist. The fact that his children have decent names like "Justin" and "Quincy" is definitely a sign of baby momma intervention. There's no way I'd let a grown man who calls himself "Diddy" name my kids either.

Real Name: Dennis Coles
Original: Ghostface Killah
Now: The anti-Diddy, no one's got a better name line-up than Ghostface Killah, who has possibly the best name in hip-hop to start out with (derived from the 1979 kung fu movie "The Mystery of Chessboxing"). In addition to Ghost, he's also gone by Tony Starks, Ironman, Pretty Toney, The Wallabee Kingpin, GFK, Ghost Deini, Starky Love, Pretty Toney, P Tone, Ghostdini, and about ten more I'm probably not mentioning. Best named rapper alive? Without a doubt (sit down OJ da Juiceman, you're not even in the running).

Real Name: Russell Tyrone Jones
Original: Ol' Dirty Bastard )ODB)
Now: It shouldn't be at all surprising that a Wu-Tang compatriot of Ghostface would name himself "Ol' Dirty Bastard", but it definitely says something about the man's state of mind. Remarkably, despite the name being a clear warning to women, Dirty managed to have at least 15 kids. Anyway, in addition to his royal Dirtiness, the man also went by the appropriately schizophrenic line-up of: Big Baby Jesus, Sweet Baby Jesus, Dirt McGirt, Dirt Dog, Russell Jones, Dirk Hardpec, Osirus, Osiris the Father, Joe Bananas, Ol' Dirt Schultz, Roll Fizzlebeef, Hasaan, Ill Irving the Murderer, Flint Ironstag, The BZA, The Drunken Master Styles, Blast Hardcheese, Ason Jones, Ason Unique and Rain Man. Frankly I feel like we can give Dirty the "King of the Hip-Hop Alias" crown and call it a day. I can only imagine what name-related heights the man could have reached if he was still alive. R.I.P. Roll Fizzlebeef.

And as an additional tribute, here's the uber-classic video for "Shimmy Shimmy Ya." I think it's safe to say rap will never see another Ol' Dirty again.