Update (November 7, 2017, 9:45 a.m.): Actually, just kidding. Diddy isn't actually changing his name to Brother Love. He said as much in an Instagram video he posted on Monday, declaring that you "cannot play around" when it comes to the internet.
"Due to the overwhelming response from the media out there… and just due to there not wanting to be any confusion… I was only joking. Okay?" he clarified. "I didn’t change my name. It’s just part of one of my alter egos. One of my alter egos is Love."
You can still call him Love — in fact, you can call him by any of his past names, which include Puff Daddy, Puffy, and P. Didd — but don't say he didn't warn you. Diddy contains multitudes...it's just hard to keep track of which ones are real.
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Original story published below on November 5, 2017, 10:45 p.m.:
Here are things that were so yesterday: The name Diddy, and more importantly, all other celebrity beefs except for the one brewing between WWF Brother Love and Sean Combs, aka Brother Love.
Combs (aka Diddy/Puff Daddy/Puffy/P. Diddy) has given himself one of the coolest birthday gifts of all: a complete rebrand. From now on, the masses must address him as "Brother Love."
According to Pitchfork, Love made the announcement in a video posted to his Twitter page on Saturday.
I decided to change my name again!
— Sean Diddy Combs (@diddy) November 4, 2017
My new name is LOVE aka Brother Love. #TakeDat pic.twitter.com/gArAXusygG
"I have some serious, serious news. I've been praying on this, and I decided — I know it's risky because it could come off as corny to some people — I decided to change my name again," he said, wearing aviators and a large-brimmed hat. "I'm just not who I am before. I'm something different. So, my new name is Love, aka Brother Love. I will not be answering to Puffy, Diddy, Puff Daddy, or any of my other monikers except for Love or Brother Love."
The video caught the attention of just about everyone who grew up watching the circus that is Combs' life, including a man named Bruce Prichard.
If you're unfamiliar with Prichard, Wrestling Inc. remembers him as a pro-wrestling aficionado who was everywhere during the late-'80s and early-'90s, first by hosting his own show, The Brother Love Show, and later by managing The Undertaker. Brother Love, his character, was a bombastic preacher akin to the smarmy televangelists your late aunt used to love watching on Sunday mornings.
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@bruceprichard is the one and only brother love. pic.twitter.com/wulx9Rj4EF
— The Dhillons (@25Dhillon25) November 5, 2017
Though Brother Love was really only a thing for about four years, neither he nor his fans have forgotten, prompting Prichard to craft this response: "Yo. Find a new gimmick. I invented and perfected Brother Love. I am the original and you are not. Remember North Carolina."
Yo. Find a new gimmick. I invented and perfected Brother Love. I am the original and you are not. Remember North Carolina.
— Bruce Prichard (@bruceprichard) November 4, 2017
I don't know what he means by "Remember North Carolina." If he's referring to the white nationalist protests in Charlottesville where people were allegedly angered by the removal of confederate statues, then he is a horrible person. If he's talking about how he got his start on the heels of a scandal in North Carolina, then, that's strange, but not as horrible. Either way, Brother Love is turning into Brother Hate right now.
For his part, Combs/Love seems unbothered and is happily basking in his new persona.