Bo Diddley? Otha Elias Bates McDaniel. Andre 3000? Andre Lauren Benjamin. KRS One? Lawrence Krisna Parker. Eminem? Robert Van Winkle. Whudat.com offers up Government Tags, a pretty comprehensive list of the "real" names of hip hop and r&b artists. Some guys like Wyclef (Nelust Wyclef Jean) just wanted fewer syllables. Some guys like Spike Lee (Shelton Jackson Lee) just wanted to, at long last, scare somebody.

Government Tags [Whudat.com]