Kanye West is once again making it clear to the world that it’s time to call him by his real name—Ye. And this time, he says he’s serious.
Back in 2021, the rapper, producer, and fashion mogul legally changed his name to just Ye. No middle name, no last name, just Ye. But despite the legal move, a lot of people just kept calling him Kanye anyway—whether it was on social media, in the press, or even on official platforms.
Now Ye is letting everyone know he’s done waiting for people to catch up. He posted to his more than 30 million followers that he’s ready to walk away from his old Twitter handle and start fresh. “Ima finally going to stop using the @kanyewest Twitter cause my name is Ye. Gonna start a ye account, and it is what it is,” he wrote.
There’s just one little hiccup with the plan. The @ye handle on X (formerly Twitter) is already taken. Still, that didn’t stop him from putting it out there and making his point loud and clear.
This isn’t the first time he’s tried to push people to respect the name change. Last year, Milo Yiannopoulos, who was working with Ye at the time as his chief of staff, actually sent out a letter to leaders in the music industry demanding they refer to him as Ye.
“Ye is a Black man in America who wants the right to full self-determination just like everyone else,” the letter said. It was a pretty bold move, but it reflects just how much the rapper cares about being called by the name he chose for himself.
Even though the legal change happened in 2021, Ye had been using the name for years before that. He actually dropped an album titled Ye back in 2018, and ever since then, the nickname has stuck with his fans.
But despite all of that, the world just hasn’t fully adapted. Most headlines still use “Kanye West” because it’s the name most people instantly recognize. But Ye’s latest post shows he’s still on a mission to shift the narrative and get everyone on board with his one-word name.
Whether the social media handle change actually happens or not, Ye’s message is clear. He’s not Kanye anymore. He’s Ye, and he wants the world to get it right.