As most of you probably know, my favorite nickname is Big Daddy Wheelz, a nickname that I gave myself quite a few years back. Some of you might even know the story of how I came up with the nickname. But I’ve been thinking about that backstory lately, and I realized that it truly started a long time prior to when I first thought. Ladies and gentlemen, sexy people of all gender identities, I present to you the origin story of Big Daddy Wheelz.

I’d like to take you back to my high school days. I would wake up early in the morning to catch the bus, and there were plenty of times where I would wait outside the house in the garage because my dad had to leave for work and there was nobody else around to open the door for me when the bus arrived. During that waiting period, I would usually scroll through Facebook or play random games on my phone. At some point, though, I started getting hit with inspiration and ideas for rap lyrics out of nowhere. I didn’t have any friends who made music at the time, so I would just write them down in my phone’s notes app and have basic beats in my head in the hopes that I would one day be able to turn them into actual songs. Nothing ever came of those particular lyrics or songs, but I did eventually make a Christmas rap with my stepbrother a few years later that I uploaded onto SoundCloud (link below).

Fast forward to fall of 2016 and I’m in my last year of community college. The school was getting ready to host a Halloween party with a costume contest. Since I wanted to make the most of my college years, I decided to go shopping at Party City to prepare for the festivities. As my eyes were scrolling through the pictures of costumes on the walls, I couldn’t find anything that stood out to me…until I came across the “Mack Daddy” outfit (which I’m pretty sure was just their less offensive way of saying pimp).

I immediately knew that this was going to be my Halloween costume for the party. But there was no way I would just go with the basic outfit. I went all out and bought the chain, the cane, and the hat for the complete big pimpin’ experience! And to top it all off, I had to come up with the perfect name to fit my new persona. After a few minutes of going back and forth with my attendant Joe who had taken me to the store, we landed on the name Big Daddy Wheelz, and it hit like a bolt of lightning. I loved the name so much that I changed my Instagram handle and have been using it for many other social media accounts ever since, and it also worked perfectly as my rapper name on SoundCloud when I released the Christmas track a few months later. Big Daddy Wheelz was such a hit that I ended up winning the “fan favorite” portion of the costume contest!

I wish I could say that was the end of the story, but that would be a lie. As I mentioned in my blog post about mental health, I’ve struggled with issues of low self esteem, and this was around the time that it all really started. My little victory at the costume contest gave me such an ego boost that I ended up using that outfit at other events outside of Halloween as well as future Halloween parties for a couple years, and I even would refer to myself in 3rd person as Big Daddy Wheelz, both on social media and IRL sometimes. I still do it jokingly from time to time, but back then it was overkill.

Big Daddy Wheelz had become more than just a costume and character for me. He was my alter ego. I was tired of being Logan, the guy who overthought everything and could never get a date or a girlfriend. I wanted to be Big Daddy Wheelz, the big pimpin’ badass who didn’t give a fuck and could get any girl he wanted.

While I still struggle with those issues, it’s not quite as bad as it was back then. But just because I like to think I’m a different person doesn’t mean I’ll just get rid of the nickname. It’s an awesome nickname! I still use it for my social media and Twitch streaming and it’s a great rapper name for if/when I come out with more songs (I really do enjoy making music). I even still have the outfit in case I need it for any reason in the future, although I’ll probably need to go shopping so I can replace or upgrade my accessories. In other words, Big Daddy Wheelz is here to stay!