That was fast. Hours after telling TMZ that he would eventually change his name from Lil Xan to his real name, Diego, video has surfaced of the 21-year-old rapper making things official.
Sitting down with Big Boy's Neighborhood, he said, "Yo, it's official, my name is now Diego." After laughing off the idea that he would go by 'Lil Diego,' he looked at the camera and announced, "I'm Diego."
Explaining that the shift had already started taking place among his fans, Diego said, "It's crazy because I just did TRL in New York. I left the building and they were calling me Diego. Not one person called me Lil Xan. All my fans were calling me Diego."
Last month, Diego told us about the growth he's experienced as an artist already. Speaking about his old songs that contained references to drugs that he has since quit, he said, "The whole thing is like a journey. It’s not like, ‘Oh, Xan made a song a long time ago embracing Xanax, he’s a fucking liar.’ They can see my journey unfold. That many months ago I was going through that and that’s how things were up until “Betrayed.’ Now they can see where it started, what happened, and where I am now. I thought maybe I should delete those tracks, but then I was like, 'I should leave them up for that purpose solely.' It’s perfect. People can change. Look at my old stuff, I was embracing all of it, and look at how far I came."
This comes in the middle of a serious conversation about drugs in hip-hop following Lil Peep's overdose on Xanax and Fentanyl in November. Since Peep's death, rappers like Lil Pump and Smokepurpp have publicly announced they're quitting Xanax in 2018.
Diego's Lil Xan name has been a contradiction to his anti-drug messages since emerging with a breakout hit "Betrayed" that specifically spells out: "Xans don't make you / Xans gon' take you / Xans gon' fake you / And Xans gon' betray you."
For more on Diego, read our interview with him here and watch a few of his music videos below.
