John David Jackson’s stage name proves that some amount of good comes from every situation. He was going by the tentative rap name “Sport” when he rapped for DJ Clue at Hot 97, and dropped a line where he called himself a “fabulous vocabulist”. Clue began spreading the word of a talented young lyricist named “Fabulous”, so Fab had no choice but to change his rap name in order to capitalize on the buzz associated with the name Fabulous. Switching it to Fabolous was most likely done to add some originality to the name.

Herbert Anthony Stevens IV originally planned to go by the stage name “Absolute”, but thought it was too boring. He was inspired to make the change after watching his little sister perform in a Dreamgirls production and hearing the crowd chant “Jimmy’s got soul!” when Jimmy Early performed. He constantly reminds us to write the hyphen in between Ab and Soul to avoid confusion with another group called Absoul.

Tauheed Epp’s new stage name is obviously inspired in part by his tendency to wear two chains at the same time, but it goes a little deeper than that. After going by “Tity Boi” in the hip-hop duo Playaz Circle, he adopted his new name when he began a solo career in order to represent second chances.

Michael Wayne Atha pays homage to his Native American heritage with his stage name:

Yelawolf is Native American, my blood father is Cherokee, and Yelawolf just represents… Yela is the color of the sun, fire, power, life, and it represents hunger. Wolf represents by ability to survive and be a pack leader"

The origin of Shawn Corey Carter’s stage name is one of much debate. The general consensus is that it comes from his childhood nickname “jazzy” and is also a head nod towards his mentor Jaz-O, but some also believe that it was done in reference to the J and Z subway lines that ran through Jay’s neighborhood when he was a kid. It makes sense, but sources close to Jay have written that interpretation off as an urban legend.

Note – Jay-Z dropped the hyphen from his name for the first time in the credits to Watch The Throne, then finalized the move years later (R.I.P.).

Jayceon Taylor’s grandmother gave him his stage name at a very young age, because he was “game” for any sport when he was a kid. He went by “The Game” in the beginning of his career, but dropped the “the” on later albums.

Ben Haggerty came up with his stage name the same way everyone comes up with good ideas – by getting drunk with his friends.

When I was 17 I was living in Brooklyn, NY for the summer. I was young, creative, boney and drunk a lot of the time. I use to go to thrift shops and buy the most flamboyant plaid outfits. On some Prince meets Bob Barker meets your grandpa meets Matt Lauer on sherm. When I’d go out in the city and kick it, I would dress up in these garments. When I did this I was known as “Professor Macklemore.” Later, I realized that I wasn’t a professor of anything but the name Macklemore followed me.

Dennis Coles of the Wu-Tang Clan borrowed his stage name from a badass character of the same name in the 1979 kung-fu flick Mystery of Chessboxing. Check out the OG Ghostface Killer here.

Corey Woods of the Wu-Tang Clan goes by both Raekwon and Raekwon the Chef. He explained the origin of both in an interview:

I got the name Raekwon The Chef because at one point I was in the Nation of Islam and I was given a name but only the Raekwon part was suitable for the music so that’s where I got that. In those old karate flicks there was an old dude called The Chef who was nasty and mean. RZA said “You remind me of this kinda cat, this is what we gon' call you'. That’s how we came with Raekwon The Chef.