According to a vigilant fan on Reddit, Jaden Smith has officially dropped his last name on streaming services, YouTube, and more. Jaden has not officially commented on the change. Smith, I’m sorry I mean Jaden, has been trying to distance himself from living in the shadow of his father, Will Smith. That distancing was one of the topics in his lyrics on his album, Syre and this changing of his stage name is clearly one concrete way to do that. However, some would argue that Jaden should embrace his father’s name and use his background as a way to increase popularity.
Let’s be honest, how much will Jaden dropping part of his stage name really change his popularity at this point? He’s already really, really big and his first name, Jaden, is memorable in of itself. Also, he is already one of the first suggestions that drops down when you type “jad” into the search bar, which would have been true regardless if he dropped “Smith”. But that’s also an argument against dropping the last name because, since Jaden’s so big, he doesn’t need to distance himself from his father anymore and that it will just be a hassle to have to remember that he dropped it.
Another possible objection to the name drop is that because “Smith” is the stereotypical common last name, keeping and exploring that could lead to some interesting artistic statements. I know that this is a little abstract, but I’m thinking something along the lines of Jaden Smith expressing in his lyrics about him trying to either break from being normal, or become normal. Just an idea Jaden, so let me know if you want to use it.
To be fair, dropping his last name is certainly better than if he dropped his first name.