Most people don’t recognize Mos Def by his real name, Dante Terrell Smith, but now people might have trouble recognizing Mos Def by any name, since Mos will retire his famous pseudonym.

According to Vulture via MTV, Mos will change his name to Yasiin in 2012. “I’m retiring the Mos Def name after 2011,” he said to MTV. “I’m actually doing it. Yasiin. That’s it. 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.”

You can watch the video of him talking about his new name below.

What do you think about this? I think it’s pretty shocking to see that Mos is changing his name, a name that flows off the tongue fairly well. It’s going to be a sad day when 2012 finally rolls around and his name is put to pasture.