New York City emcee Chris Rivers has found himself following in the footsteps of his father Big Pun musically, but Rivers revealed that he hopes to disassociate himself from his father’s dark history as much as possible and even dropped the Baby Pun nickname for his current stage name, Chris Rivers.

Rivers spoke in-depth about his father during an interview on HOT 97’s Real Late With Peter Rosenberg and further addressed forming his own identity as an artist while also touching on the willingness to be a better man than his father.

“I had the name Baby Pun when I was younger and as I started to become my own artist. It’s like now I’m really doing it heavy, I [figured out I] wanted my own identity,” Rivers explained. “And it’s different cause like I get proud when people tell me I’m like my father, but his good side. Cause he had two sides. There’s one side that nobody really knew. So, I get proud when people tell me that, but when people call me Baby Pun I don’t really want it cause it’s like I don’t wanna be like my father at all. I wanna be a better man than him or take all his good qualities and amplify it. I don’t wanna be that man and I’m not that man.”

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Prior to addressing the name change, Rivers was questioned on how he felt whenever stories of Big Pun’s grim history were brought up. He explained that the stories are never “a shocker” since he witnessed most everything first hand.

“In retrospect really, I was there through it,” said Rivers. “So, it’s not like hearing it was a shocker…My sisters remember more because they were older, but I remember everything—that I was there for. It was a lot of stuff, but like my sisters have a hard time forgiving. But it’s really just a forgiving factor. I didn’t fully understand it or why he did it. And that’s probably why I’m so biased with the Baby Pun thing.”

Chris Rivers’ appearance on Real Late With Peter Rosenberg shortly followed the June 3 release of his Wonderland Of Misery mixtape.

RELATED: Chris Rivers “Wonderland Of Misery” Tracklist, Download & Mixtape Stream

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