The Wu-Tang Clan is one of those legendary groups that has long been celebrated for the branding of their name. For that reason, it inspired a lot of artists to turn to them in landing their own stage names.
With respect to the Clan, many hip-hop enthusiasts can attest that its difficult to not appreciate the hustle of the brand from their melodies to their marketing of their symbols. There are plenty of things to learn embedded in their history and discography throughout the past two decades.
While we can further trust the future of hip-hop in that it will birth artists that are inspired looking to the Wu-Tang Clan to catch ideas for their names, take a look at five artists who have respectably incorporated the clan’s element into their monikers :
1. Ugly God
Although he hasn’t said it publicly, UglyGod changed his name from his original (Pussy Bacon) to be more marketable in the industry . Theories point to his inspiration being from U-God ( originally Golden Arms).
2. Killah Priest
Alongside fellow members Ghostface Killah and Masta Killah , the comparison is easy to detect . Priest was from the same era of the clan in the mid ’90s. With this , he further revealed that he didn’t pick his name , but his brothers chose it for him .
3. Childish Gambino
For DonaldGlover, he used a Wu-Tang Clan generator with some friends. When everybody was joking around and getting funny variations of names ,Glover ‘s name came up . He liked it so much that he was compelled to expand the name. However , Glover recently stated that he wants to retire the moniker after his last project .
4. Smoke DZA
DZA’s name is also affiliated with RZA and GZA. He’s also stated that the first word “Smoke” comes from the film “Friday” with Chris Tucker. Originally , the name itself was “Smoke Dog” and then “Dog” turned to DZA from “for shizzle my nizzle”. Later on The acronym DZA now stands for Dream Zone Achieve.
5. SZA
It’s no question that SZA’s name was inspired by clan members RZA and GZA as well as having derivatives of the supreme alphabet . The “S” could mean Savior, the “Z” is zigzag and the “A” for Allah as her faith in Islam. She has revealed in the past friends and associates have clowned her for the name but now she’s worked with RZA so the jokes began to simmer down.
