Why do famous people choose to put Lil' in front of their name...why not big?

it’s a term of endearment, i suppose.

also, lil’ kim is little and lil’ romeo (i think) was young. probably now he’s just romeo. or was that lil bow wow?

in any case, i’ll henceforth be known as lil’ eponymoushipster. yo yo yo, what it is!

Remember the Tennessee Williams’ play, “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”? The larger-than-life anti-hero was “Big Daddy.” And Big Bad Leroy Brown.

i love it when you call me Big Poppa…

@uberbatman: That is so uberbatman; but you’re not southern, you’re not 50 years old and you’re not a despot.

More like: why do famous black singers put “lil’” in front of their name?

I don’t know. It definitely is a term of endearment, but why they choose that in particular, I don’t know. I was trying to research it on Google and I couldn’t find anything! :P

@gailcalled Notorious B.I.G. said that; he’s from brooklyn.

I am so behind the times. Thanks, epony.

Big Pun

Wayne, Bowwow and Romeo all started rapping as kids.

Wayne was 8 when he wrote his first song, and 15 when he first was recorded. His first solo album was at age 17.

Bowwow’s first album came out when he was 13. He dropped the “Lil” from his stage name in April 2002; he told MTV News: “I changed my name because I’m getting older now and it’s too many Lil’s.”

Romeo’s first album came out in 2001, when he was 12. He then dropped the “Lil” from his stage name for the same reasons basically that Bowwow dropped it. As a 5’ 11” basketball player, he was too big to be called “Lil” anything.

Ya’ll may have forgotten, but they aren’t the only ones to start with a diminutive in front of their name. At age 11, Little Stevie Wonder recorded his first album. He has long since dropped the “Little.” It is pretty common for very talented singing kids to be publicized as “Little” or “Lil” what’s-his-name. Then if they keep on singing they drop the “Little” because they aren’t any longer.

I have no idea why “Lil” Mama calls herself that. She was 18 when her big hit came out.

Steroids?

Because contemporary musicians (especially rappers ) will take any opportunity they can to misspell words because they perceive it to be “cool” and there isn’t a creative way left to do that with the word “big” That has already been taken by the Notorious B,I,G, of course and even he spelled it correctly.

Does the name Ludacris ring a bell here? Boyz to Men? etc. etc.

Before you go jumping down my throat, think about it for a few moments…...the same rule of thumb also applies to many song titles. I can’t think of any to list right off the top of my head, but there are many , many times in the past when this has caused me to inwardly groan in despair over the intentional mangling and murder of the English language which is all the rage these days, grumble, grumble, bah humbug!

As Cole Porter said so elegantly, “Anything Goes.”

Cuz big ain’t fly.