Brooklyn's finest, Mos Def, revealed that he will retire his recording name and adopt a new moniker for the stage and recording studio. By the end of 2011, Mos, whose real name is Dante Terrell Smith, will being recording under the name Yasin. 

"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," the rapper explains.