Why DaBaby changed his rap name from Baby Jesus: “We’re ready”
Have you ever seen Baby Jesus perform on stage? Not that Baby Jesus, but the North Carolina rapper who later became DaBaby and shot to mainstream fame with his 2020 hit ‘Rockstar’.
It was an attention-grabbing name, but not necessarily a sustainable one. Early in his rise, the artist began to realise that ‘Baby Jesus’ carried baggage that could distract from the music and limit wider appeal, particularly outside of rap’s more permissive cultural bubble.
DaBaby, whose real name is Jonathan Kirk, adopted the name as his profile began to grow, but the sacrilegious edge of the original moniker threatened to become the story instead of the songs. In a genre where provocation can be currency, there is still a line between irreverence and needless controversy.
Casually referencing Jesus Christ in hip hop is not inherently taboo, with Kanye West offering one high-profile example of religious language reworked in public. Still, the name ‘Baby Jesus’ risked alienating religious listeners and creating a running distraction that would follow Kirk as his ambitions expanded.
On the opening track of God’s Work: Resurrected, he addressed the change directly, describing the original name as politically charged and warning that it would generate hype around branding rather than craft. Rather than spend his career defending a title, he shifted to something that preserved his identity while dropping the controversy.
He doubled down on that confidence in an interview with XXL in 2017, the year he publicly pushed the DaBaby name forward. “2017 will be the year of DaBaby,” he declared, framing the switch as proof of loyalty from his audience rather than a risky reset.
“The name change, it just shows me the amount of love and respect people have for me,” he added. “To change the name and not lose any traction, that’s something a lot of people have trouble doing. When it comes to 2017, we’re ready to work.”
If anything, the transition proved how little his momentum depended on the headline value of the name. Even when DaBaby leaned into shock elsewhere, including an infamous 2017 appearance at SXSW, the shift away from Baby Jesus made it easier for the music to sit at the centre of his story.
By 2020, that strategy had paid off in commercial terms. ‘Rockstar’ went to number one, and DaBaby’s profile expanded far beyond the underground buzz he had been building, with the rapper now positioned among pop-facing rap’s biggest names.
Amen.