When did Kanye West change his name to Ye? Donda rapper tweets about launching new X account under rebranded identity

Kanye West has announced that he will stop using his current X account and switch to a new one with the name 'Ye.' On Sunday, June 1, he took to X to make the announcement, writing:

Ye

@kanyewest

Ima finally stop using the

@kanyewest

twitter cause my name is Ye

Gonna start a ye account and it is what it is

The Donda rapper, whose full name was Kanye Omari West, filed a petition on August 24, 2021, to legally change his name to Ye. In the legal document, the rapper stated that the name change was due to "personal reasons." On October 19, 2021, it was approved, and the single-syllable moniker became the rapper's official name, unaccompanied by a middle name or surname.

Ye was also the title of his eighth studio album, released in 2018 via GOOD Music and Def Jam Recordings. That same year, West opened up about the significance of 'Ye' in an interview with radio host Bad Boy, highlighting the religious implications of the word, saying:

"I believe ‘Ye’ is the most commonly used word in the Bible, and in the Bible it means ‘you. So I’m you, I’m us, it’s us. It went from Kanye, which means the only one, to just Ye — just being a reflection of our good, our bad, our confused, everything. The album is more of a reflection of who we are.”

Kanye isn't the only rapper who has changed his name at some point in his career. Over the years, several industry giants like Snoop Dogg, Prince, and Sean Love Combs have done the same.

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Kanye West extends an olive branch to Pusha T in recent tweet

L to R: Kanye West and Pusha T (both images via Getty)

On May 30, 2025, Kanye West took to X to express that he missed the friendship of fellow rapper Pusha T (born Terrence LeVarr Thornton). The Donda hitmaker wrote:

Ye

@kanyewest

I miss me and Pusha’s friendship

The tweet follows the celebration of Pusha T's group, Clipse, marking their return after over a decade with the release of the single Ace Trumpets. This track will also act as the lead single for their much-awaited fifth studio album, Let God Sort Em Out. In the single, Pusha T appears to take a jab at Kanye, rapping:

“Sold ecstasy and disappeared, I am Whodini/ Look at them, him and him, still waitin’ on Yeezy/ I hope you got your squeegees/ At your interviews, I just ki-ki.”

The rift between West and Pusha T began when the latter left his leadership role at G.O.O.D. Music. This followed a series of antisemitic tweets from Kanye West that drew widespread backlash from fans and celebrities alike. Pusha opened up about the same in a December 2022 conversation with XXL.

“[It’s] nothing to tap dance around. It’s wrong. Period. But to me, it’s just me and him having a difference of opinion yet again,” he opined.

“If you ain’t with it, you ain’t down. And I ain’t with it. I’m not budging on that. I’m not with it. I heard about this new [Infowars] stuff. I don’t know. It’s something that just sort of tells me he’s not well, at the same time. I will say that. It’s going to places where it’s no way to move around it.”

For the unversed, Pusha T signed with Kanye West's G.O.O.D. Music in 2010 and subsequently released several albums under Ye's guidance.These included hits like My Name Is My Name, Daytona, King Push - Darkest Before Dawn: The Prelude, and the like. Pusha also worked on Kanye's 2010 album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.

In 2015, West appointed Pusha T as the president of G.O.O.D.Music.