Rapper Kanye West now known as Ye

NEW YORK • The artiste formerly known as Kanye West is now officially Ye. Just Ye.

A Los Angeles judge granted the 44-year-old's name change request, a communications officer at the Los Angeles Superior Court said on Monday.

The mercurial performer had filed the request in August, citing "personal reasons".

The name change now means the Grammy-winning rapper and producer no longer has a last or middle name. His previous full name was Kanye Omari West.

In 2018, Ye released an album by the same name, a moniker he has long used as a nickname.

"I believe 'ye' is the most commonly used word in the Bible, and in the Bible, it means you. So it's I'm you, I'm us, it's us," he said that year in a radio interview.

"It went from being Kanye, which means the only one, to just Ye being a reflection of our good, our bad, our confused, our everything."

Also in August, Ye released a two-hour, 27-track album Donda, which dropped after weeks of delay and several stadium-filled public listening sessions.

The spotlight recently has shone on Ye more for his personal life than his art, after his partner of nearly a decade, reality television star Kim Kardashian, filed for divorce earlier this year.

Before the news broke, their union had been dogged for months by reports of marital difficulties.

Last year, Ye launched an improbable and ultimately failed presidential bid.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE