Lil’ Keke, whose legal name is Marcus Lakee Edwards was born in 1976 in Houston, Texas. Keke started rapping in the early 90s and was the pupil of his friend and fellow rap innovator, DJ Screw. Lil’ Keke has been widely recognized for his influence on street music and the underground rap/ hip-hop scene of Houston and his affiliation with The Screwed Up Click, a rap collective in the city.
The song “Don’t Mess Wit Texas” was debuted in 1997 as part of the debut album called “Don’t Mess Wit Texas”. Before listening to the song, the title itself gives the impression that listeners should immediately respect Texas because they are to be taken seriously no matter what.
Through the lyrics, I definitely got the feeling that Lil Keke loves the place where he was born and doesn’t care if anybody else loves it because love it or hate it, you have no choice but to respect it. The artist has deep reverence for Texas, especially his city of birth, South Houston which is highlighted in the lyrics where he plainly says, “T-E-X-A-S is the state you don’t mess with… well respected from the north to east” (Genius). It seems like Lil Keke is talking about things that are a normal occurrence in the area where he is from such as gangbanging, shooting and killing. The references to guns, more specifically “Glock 9s” or “straps” is also something synonymous with Texas as I know they love their 2nd amendment right to bear arms. Those references also have to do with the state of the neighborhood that Lil’ Keke lived in because Houston back in the 1990s was a dangerous place. There were a lot of drug crimes going on which are referenced in the song when he says, “pourin powder in Pyrexes” and “sippin’ syrup, puffin’ marijuana” in the song (Genius). The syrup line is in reference to a popular drug that originated in Houston, commonly known as its street name, “lean” or “purple drank”. It is a combination of cough syrup and soda and can be traced back to the 1960s during the blues era when artists would combine Robitussin with alcohol. It then became popular again when it was glorified in underground hip-hop music by artists like DJ Screw, who was Lil’ Keke’s mentor.
The line about “pourin powder in Pyrexes” refers to the cooking of crack-cocaine as the debut of the Pyrex glass made it easier to do so and distribute the drug.
How was life in Houston in the early 90s to 2000s? Was it violent, dangerous, etc?
Upon further research, I found that the answer to this question is yes. During the 90s, Houston was a pretty violent place as there was a steady increase in homicides. There was a record of 16 homicides along one boulevard, the infamous MLK Boulevard. Also, African-Americans began moving into the neighborhood more which caused the white residents to move out as they feared racial integration. The African-American residents were poorer than the ones who had previously lived there which caused infrastructure to deteriorate. Overall, the South part of the city became a “rough” place to live and soon lots of criminal activity arose such as gang-banging, prostitution, and drug dealing.
Additionally, I noticed that Keke refers to Texas as the “lone star state” multiple times in the song which is something that is very “Texas-y” to me because it seems that everyone from there has a superiority complex about themselves. They see Texas as a standalone state which is interesting when I recall the history that we learned about how it was its own country for about 9 years after gaining independence from Mexico. I feel that those elements contribute to Texan identity a lot and can possibly connect with the history of the state.
The song includes a decent amount of slang and jargon that I am not familiar with but is probably attributable to Southeast Houston where Lil’ Keke is from. He makes references to the geography of Texas, noting Texas’ connection to the west, north and east of the United States. He also refers to his birthplace as the Southside and has another song titled “Southside”.
Background Info about Houston:
On the Donnie Houston podcast, Lil’ Keke talks a bit about the slang that I mentioned from the song. He says that “back then” (in the 90s), those words came from the culture of the Southside because it was a “close knit” group of people living in the neighborhoods that were included in the Southside. Houston is also a historically segregated city as a practice called redlining, which was essentially the legal exclusion of Black residents from services such as loans, insurance, etc because the areas they lived were deemed as “hazardous” due to their income and simply the fact of being black. This practice directed Black residents to certain neighborhoods in Houston and kept them in poverty and poor conditioned housing. The effects of these discriminatory laws are still impactful today as predominantly Black neighborhoods have a smaller property value and are still facing poverty. There are also less black homeowners than white people which negatively impacted their ability to gain generational wealth over time (“Exploring the Legacy of Redlining in Houston”).
Things to Note:
** Lil Keke was recognized by President Barack Obama for his outstanding service in the Houston area and received the Volunteer Service Award. He does work with the schools in Houston and Little League baseball teams, etc.
** While doing research, I learned that the phrase, “Don’t Mess with Texas” has some historical background in the history of Texas. In the 1980s, the Texas Department of Transportation had a trash issue because they were spending over $17 million on trash and the numbers were increasing. As a result, the department wanted to create a marketing strategy to address the problem. Tim McClure and others from his advertising agency came up with the idea to call the litter “a mess” as it was similar to how Texans talk and included that sense of pride which is where the phrase was born.
Overall, I just found that interesting because at first glance and based off the song itself, I immediately thought of a prideful Texan rapping about how this state is not to be taken as a joke, but to find out that the origins of the phrase came from the abundance of actual mess in Texas is hilarious and ironic.
** Words/references that appeared from word cloud: dust, guns, southern drawl
Sources
Donnie Houston TV. “Lil Keke Talks About the Southside, Slab, Don’t Mess Wit Texas + More.” YouTube, 8 Sept. 2020, www.youtube.com/watch?v=ct2qwWk9yOA.
“Exploring the Legacy of Redlining in Houston”. Understanding Houston, 10, Feb. 2021, www.understandinghouston.org/blog/legacy-of-redlining-in-houston.
Ivey, Justin. “Lil Keke Receives Lifetime Achievement Award From President Obama.” XXL Magazine, 29 Apr. 2016, www.xxlmag.com/lil-keke-lifetime-achievement-award-president-obama.
Keke, Lil. “Don’t Mess wit Texas.” YouTube, 27 Nov. 2017, youtu.be/n5wk1RxMaaU.
“Lil Keke – Don’t Mess wit Texas.” Genius, genius.com/Lil-keke-dont-mess-wit-texas-lyrics.
Nodjimbadem, K. “The Trashy Beginnings of ‘Don’t Mess with Texas’.” Smithsonian Magazine, 10 Mar. 2017, www.smithsonianmag.com/history/trashy-beginnings-dont-mess-texas-180962490/.
Thomas, F. “Lil’ Keke Biography.” AllMusic, www.allmusic.com/artist/lil-keke-mn0000826354/biography.
Universe, Sway’s. “Lil Keke on Receiving Lifetime Achievement Award from President Barack Obama | Sway’s Universe.” YouTube, 6 Feb. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2wdoyMmHBM&feature=youtu.be.
Wikipedia contributors. “South Park, Houston.” Wikipedia, 24 Dec. 2022, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Park,_Houston.
