Young Jeezy Changes Name

Young Jeezy is changing his name. The rapper is shedding "Young" from his moniker to reflect his grown man status.

The Atlanta-bred rapper recently explained to MTV why he decided to chop his name. “No, no, no, it’s Jeezy now. We dropped the ‘Young,’” he reveals. “Yeah, I’m grown now, man. I did enough of that.”

He explains that "Young Jeezy" made sense when he was in a youthful mind state but not so much anymore. “It sound good because when I came in the game, that’s who I was and that was my state of mind,” he states. “But I’m a grown man now.”

Jeezy isn't the only rapper changing his name. Jay Z dropped the hyphen from his stage name earlier this summer.

He also reflected on a big moment in his career: when President Obama gave him a shout out. During his speech at the White House Correspondents' Dinner in April 2012, the president joked about following his impromptu Al Green cover during another speech with a take on Jeezy's music.

"To me it felt like a moment in time for myself that I feel like everything I was doing wasn't getting overlooked," 'The Recession' creator says. "I do a lot of stuff for my community, charity... but the way that I came into the game kinda put me in that black cloud. Just to see he appreciates what I do for the culture, for my people, it was big."