Rappers and Their alter egos You think you may know the full story when it comes to an artist. That is, until you meet their other side, the side that isnât truly them. Plenty of well known rappers use personas for a number of reasons. Itâs usually a very interesting and artistic decision to use one and itâs never really played out if tackled correctly. But why use them at all? And where did the idea come from? Surprisingly, this answer stems from unlikely roots: Classic Rock. Thatâs right, kiddos. For just a bit, Iâll be the âClassic Rock Historianâ. Christ thatâs a horrible name. David Robert Jones, better known by his stage name, David Bowie is one of my favorite artists of all time, and is truly one of the most amazing performers ever. But what does the Heroes artist have to do with hip hop? Quite a bit actually. As a brief rundown, David Bowie created an alter ego known as Major Tom for his 1969 song, Space Oddity in which he describes his isolation he feels from the world. Major Tom would later return in Bowieâs song Ashes To Ashes where Bowie sings about his drug habit as the character. After this, his personas almost possessed Bowie as if they had a kind of their own. These characters consisted of such characters like the fascist Thin White Duke where Bowie was under a strict diet of milk, peppers, and cocaine with an unhealthy obsession for Hitlerâs ideas and the most popular one, Ziggy Stardust, a half human, half alien hybrid tragically killed off by his fans. Although almost all of these characters met a tragic end, The Thin White Duke lingered in David Bowieâs shadow until his death. Bowie himself was quoted as to say that The Thin White Duke was a nasty character indeed. Anyways, David Bowie was a pioneer of onstage performance. Although he wasnât the first to use an alter ego on stage, he sure as hell popularized it. Now back to rap. The earliest examples of a rappers using alter egos would probably be Humpty, Slim Shady, and MF Doom. While Eminem had yet to be known as the âsometimes memberâ of D12, he entered the group of 5 others. However, they wanted a huge, Wu-Tang Clan sized rap group without the numbers to do so. So each member made a persona, making the total number of members in D12 a group of 12. Thus, Eminemâs alter ego, Slim Shady was born. This character would be a loose canon and way more violent than Marshal Mathers, himself. Slim Shady was almost like the American version of A Clockwork Orange lyrically. MF Doom however started out with his persona to the point where Doom admits if heâs not in character, he canât rap like he can with the persona. In short, MF became his alter ego in the form of a black versioned the Fantastic 4 villain, Dr Doom, allowing MF to sell such incredibly great merchandise such as dolls, cereal bowls, and scratch-âN-sniff albums. However, along with this persona comes the fact that MF Doom needs to constantly hide his identity under the mask. Fans have even gone as far as accusing Doom of having doppelgängers onstage to perform for him. Our next three examples are Roman Zolanski, Larry Fisherman, and... Childish Gambino? Nicki Minaj is a huge star, thereâs no denying that. But most people would be forgiven for not knowing Nicki has an alter ego. You know those weird titles on her albums mentioning someone named âRomanâ? She even mentions Roman a few times throughout her discography and videos. To put it simply, can you recall any of the several instances Nicki Minaj has rapped surprised, out of breath, and with a throaty British accent? Thatâs Roman. Innocently enough, itâs just an imaginary friend Nicki created back when she started out just to add to her quirky aesthetic. This next one isnât so much a persona as it is an alternative name to Mac Miller. Larry Fisherman is an obvious spin on the name of celebrated actor, Larry Fishburne. In this disguise, Mac just wears either very childish outfits or something nautical themed. Besides the subtle differences, nothing is different between Mac and Larry. Now for the last and biggest one: Childish Gambino. âBut wait, Hip Hop Historian! Childish Gambino is his stage name that he got from The Wu-Tang Name generator! Itâs not a persona!â And youâd be right if this weâre anywhere between Donald Gloverâs first studio album, Camp to his 2014 projects, Kauai and Stn Mtn. Besides that, if you look anywhere explaining who Childish Gambino is, youâd see that heâs described specifically as âDonald Gloverâs alter egoâ. Well, when Glover first tried his hand at rapping in his mixtapes Poindexter and Sick Boi, he used a voice that was squeaky and sounded as though Gambino had a stuffy nose. Fans dubbed this âThe Sick Boi Voiceâ. In these first few projects, along side âI Am Not A Rapperâ 1&2 for the most part, felt separated from what youâll hear Gambino saying now. Itâs not until his mixtape âCuldesacâ where we hear Glover change his voice to something more like what we can hear in âCampâ and Childish Gambino begins to rap about things personal to him. Yet, this still isnât Donald Glover, but Childish Gambino. But around the time of Gambinoâs first studio album, Camp is when Glover and Gambino become one in the same. Itâs at this point that Glover embraces the persona and all its consequences. More recently in his 2016 album, âAwaken! My Loveâ however, Glover has again, abandons the moniker of Childish Gambino and only dons the title when heâs making music. Iâd like to close things off by saying that alter egos give us something more than just an art piece. It lets us dwell within the mind of the artist. It allows us to feel their emotions and get a better understanding of them. Because who better to tell us about these artists than themselves? Or at least the OTHER versions of them.
