Jaden Explains Why He No Longer Goes By "Jaden Smith"

BYAlex Zidel266.4K Views
Link Copied to Clipboard!
Rich Fury/Getty Images
Jaden Smith
Jaden tells Apple Music why he decided to drop his family name as it pertains to his music career.

A year ago, Jaden Smith decided to switch things up, going solely by Jaden as it pertains to music. His decision was definitely pretty low-key but, in his new interview with Apple Music and Zane Lowe, he explained his decision to make the change.

"I realized that Willow changed her name to Willow at some point in time. And that she was no longer Willow Smith. Yeah, it took me a while. It took me a while. Because if you look Willow Smith up, it'll still come up. But then it took me a while to see that it was just Willow. And I was like, 'Yo. That's so strong,'" says Jaden about his sister.

Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

He continued, "That's strong. Willow. You feel like you don't have to say your last name. You're just Willow. I create different characters for myself and that's also one of the reasons I love Bowie so much, but I create different characters for myself and it's like, Jaden, that's music and Jaden Smith, that's 501(c)(3), that's acting in movies. I wanted to just make that little distinction there, just a little bit, so that I could just ... different things are happening."

With so much going on in Jaden's professional career, including music, movies, a water filtration service, a clothing brand, and much more, it makes sense that he would want to make that differentiation for himself and his fans.

What do you think of the change?


About The Author
<b>Managing Editor</b> <!--BR--> Alex Zidel began working at HotNewHipHop as a Staff Writer in February 2018 before becoming the Managing Editor in June 2019. <strong>Favorite Hip Hop Artists:</strong> Kid Cudi, Kanye West, Young Thug, Frank Ocean.
...