Houston rappers clean up their acts to rake in the cash

[TerrenceB]

HOUSTON -- Since 2006, rap sales are down 33 percent – twice the drop for the overall music industry.

McDonalds and Verizon have recently dropped rap artists for questionable content.

That’s leading many rappers – including those from the Houston area – to clean up their act.

Marcus “Lil Keke” Edwards is among those rappers.

“I guess we’re all getting a little softer,” Edwards said. “It’s probably why we’re making a little more money, lasting a little longer.”

But for Edwards, it wasn’t always about being clean.

Today, he has a wife and three sons.

He said he lets his kids listen to his new, cleaned-up tracks, but not to the harder songs on which he built his reputation.

He grew up in a home without a father in a hard Houston neighborhood, and as a teen was already running from police.

But in today’s rap world, it seems even gangsters grow up. Ice cube went from killing cops and assaulting women to making children’s movies. Snoop Dogg is coaching Little League.

And there’s an even newer phenomenon: That of the faux gangster.

“A lot of people that is real educated, that’s putting on a gangsta look, gangsta jeans, gangsta shirt, but they talk just as proper as you. The game has just transcended,” Edwards said.

Take Houston rapper Chingo Bling, for example.

He’s married to his childhood sweetheart and is the product of an elite east coast private high school.

He earned a business degree from Trinity University and a ghetto pass for the streets.

Veteran music producers say they see it in their rap clients all the time.

Edwards says the move to maturity is all about money.

“You have to broaden your audience,” he said.

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