[[quoteright:280:[[Music/IceCube http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ratedgforgangsta_5112.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:280:[-Water safety? Now ''that's'' gangsta-].]]
->''"But I believe in this, and it's been tested by research \\
That he who fucks nuns, will later join the church"''
-->-- '''Music/TheClash,''' "Death Or Glory"

There is a trend of entertainers developing LighterAndSofter material after they reach the "mainstream," when their original stuff was much more adult-oriented, or, at least, [[DarkerAndEdgier "mature."]]

This is more obvious with rappers, who usually begin as anti-establishment and [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism cynical]] musicians, and, as they go to Hollywood after they manage to get a hit out in the public's ears, begin to make more presentable appearances, going from "baggy pants and wifebeater" to "sport jacket and unbuttoned shirt" to "three piece suit." The only thing that doesn't change is the bling, it seems.

And it's not just the wardrobe that changes. A ''SaturdayNightLive'' guest spot today, presenting an MTV Video Awards tomorrow, a little SesameStreetCred, and before you know, they'll have a RealityShow about raising their kids.

The reasons for that are several. Either the entertainer actually changes his/her worldview after being exposed to a lifestyle until then unthinkable, he/she wants to try something new (like acting!), the MoralGuardians complained way too much about the song their kids insisted on listening to, or perhaps [[MoneyDearBoy his pockets were lighter than he thought]]. But, the most common reason is [[SoMyKidsCanWatch having children]] - the entertainer doesn't want his kids to think of him as nothing more than the guy who shouted obscenities on TV, or he now feels how other parents felt about having his kids exposed to such obscenities.

Compare TomHanksSyndrome. Related to ScaryMusicianHarmlessMusic and BleachedUnderpants (when a work distances itself from its pornographic beginnings). SoMyKidsCanWatch happens when a performer does family-friendly fare with every intention of going back to business as usual afterwards.


* The entire genre of hip hop as record companies discovered it and subverted it to broaden it to a larger audience instead of the inner cities. From "Rapper's Delight", "The Message", "[[Music/{{NWA}} Fuck the Police]]" and "[[Music/PublicEnemy Fight The Power]]", to ... whatever it is they do today.
** Specifically, some individual rappers do it because they are getting older and wealthier and thus some feel the subjects they dealt with don't relate as much anymore, while others do it because they want to adopt an attitude of a "safe rapper", someone who can work with non hip hop artists and not scare off the latter's intended audience.
** Music/{{Jay-Z}} is a good example. He started his career with a drug-dealing background and a "don" persona. As he got older, wealthier and more famous, he obviously wasn't going to still deal drugs, so matured as a person, fully embraced the star lifestyle and it reflects in his music. He's no longer a gangsta because he doesn't need to be, and in a sense it's a natural evolution.
* Anybody in [[http://rottentomatoes.com/news/1865821/the_10_most_unlikely_kids_movie_stars this Rotten Tomatoes article]].
* Sean "Diddy" Combs. Started as "Puff Daddy", a pot-loving rapper. Now, he owns a clothing line. Sure, he was never actually ''{{Badass}}'', but still, he went from advocating use of a illegal substance, to, well, whatever he is now.
* SnoopDogg. Went from rapper to violent movie star, then to comedy movie star (with a stopover in porn), and now has his own reality show about raising his kids. He even features regularly on {{Futurama}}, notably as the Supreme Justice of the world.
** His music has also undergone a transformation, from hard-hitting thug anthems to more mellow "ladies' man" smoothness.
*** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygIS16sWjCE His new album disagrees with that assessment (NSFW)]]
* IceCube -- same thing, from rapper to horror movie star, to ''Are We There Yet''. He does go back from time to time, alternating roles between "BadAss thug" and "UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist".
** Referenced on TheBoondocks:
--->'''Gangstalicious:''' You know who my favorite rapper was when I was your age? Ice Cube.
--->'''Riley:''' That dude who does family movies? He was a gangsta rapper?
** IceCube's last three albums pretty much re-established his street cred because of his return to form, especially the controversial song ''Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It''. His music is still as raw as it was on his debut, and that's saying a lot. This trope only kicks in during his acting career.
** Cube gave a rather sobering explanation for why he's taken family comedy films, saying it's the path of least resistance in Hollywood. According to him it's hard to get serious dramatic black films funded, and that Hollywood prefers to finance black comedies instead.
* {{Eminem}} -- Began as a groundbreaking white rapper, achieved popularity with preteens, acted in a movie based on himself, now he records self-censored versions of his own hits (and he has put his daughter to sing in one of them, {{Squick}}).
** And now, he's been drafted by [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKL254Y_jtc Chrysler's 2011 Super Bowl ad]] as basically the Ambassador of Detroit.
* Inversion (though not in the musical field): WillSmith, the Fresh Prince, another who was never badass, but went from actual rapper to gimmicky actor in [[FreshPrinceOfBelAir his own sitcom]], to serious actor. This was actually beneficial, and he has been nominated for two Oscars.
* Subversion with KanyeWest, whose music and actions have become DarkerAndEdgier and more controversial since becoming famous.
* Creator/EddieMurphy went from a famously profane and edgy comedian and actor in R-rated movies to a mainstream comedic actor who often appears in Disney and family films, with the occasional edgy film thrown in.
* Bushwick Bill from Music/GetoBoys (Jamaican born one-eyed dwarf, I couldn't make this up even if I wanted to), started violently in the early 90's. His new solo album is [[HijackedByJesus a gospel album]].
** [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace Getting shot]] in [[EyeScream the face]] by [[WomanScorned your girlfriend]] ''might'' cause you to [[CouldHaveBeenMessy reevaluate your life]], though.
** Getting shot in the face by your girlfriend because you were holding her child near the window saying you'll drop it if she doesn't shoot you... that makes things a little confusing.
** Justified: Bushwick was quite depressed, and [[DrivenToSuicide was also suicidal]]. The [[GargleBlaster Everclear]] he was drinking certainly didn't help matters.
*** He even made a song about it called ''Ever So Clear''
* Looptroop, Swedish anarchist rap group. Never really gangsta, but some change detectable. On their first album they had a song endorsing shoplifting; on the newest album, a cover of Bon Jovi's "Living On a Prayer"
* Finnish rapper Steen1, first album was rather profanity filled anti-authoritarian rant, the second album more calm, (still zealous, though), on one single expresses remorse over glorifying a cop-killer on his first album.
* Hardcore, alchoholic, Thug LOC from Aarhus Vest and part of the West-Coast inspired crew BANGERS is now part of "Selvmord" (Suicide), making Gangsta-gone-sensitive music with former Suspekt and Rune Rask (also all examples of this trope). Development... growing up... quitting alcoholism.
* Inverted in the case of Music/MichaelJackson, who became less "kid-friendly" as the time passed. Given that he started ''as'' a kid, that's probably natural.
* Three Six Mafia is well on its way to being RatedGForGangsta, seeing how their first album was about Satan Worship, and their latest includes a radio playlist hit.
** I think their G-rating began when they won an Oscar--before Creator/MartinScorsese, no less![[note]]Immediately lampshaded by that year's host, Jon Stewart: "For those of you keeping score at home, that's Martin Scorsese 0, Three Six Mafia 1."[[/note]]
* Music/OzzyOsbourne was known as a particular family-unfriendly rockstar with Satanic undertones and lurid legends of his backstage exploits. Since the airing of ''The Osbournes'', however, he's viewed as a befuddled and doddering old man. His harmless media appearances since then include pitching ''World of Warcraft''. Those "Satanic undertones" were also often, especially in the case of early Black Sabbath, NotChristianRock.
* [[{{Fanon}} It is often theorized]] that this happened to Music/TheBeatles sometime between 1960 and 1962, thanks to their manager, Brian Epstein. Leather jackets to mohair suits is definitely going LighterAndSofter.
** Epstein also required the group to shed their seamier Hamburg performance habits, such as drinking beer and smoking onstage, and cussing out the audience.
** They may have been behaving better by the early 60s than they did in the fifties, but Ohhhhhhh boy did their subject matter in the late 60s reverse the trend... "Why Don't We Do It In the Road," anyone?
*** WordOfGod says that was intended as a comment on how humans have all these "horrendous problems" with the act of procreation while animals don't and will happily "do it in the road".
* KRS One is a bit of a variation: one of the creators of [[strike:Gangsta rap]] ''HardcoreHipHop'', he made one of the genre's defining albums with ''Criminally Minded'', but went through a bit of a spiritual crisis after his friend and DJ Scott La rock was murdered. His music eventually became a lot less gangsta and a lot more Christian: he actually released an album called ''Spiritualy Minded''.
** KRS One is today a political black activist... Still gotta love the 10 classics on Criminal Minded.
* Played straight and inverted multiple times by {{Nas}}. From ''Illmatic'', to "Oochie Wally", to battling {{Jay-Z}} and declaring hip hop "dead", to signing with Def Jam and Fila shoe endorsements; all the while collaborating with the entire gamut of hip hop from DJ Premier and Pete Rock to Trackmasters and Puff Daddy.
** And even non-hip-hop artists such as Music/{{Korn}} and Damian Marley!
** One of the many themes on Nas' 2012 album ''Life is Good'' is deconstruction of this trope.
* DwayneJohnson was once known exclusively as The Rock: a wrestler who hit you as hard in the ring as he did verbally outside of it, and if you didn't like it you could stick it straight up your candy ass. When he first started acting he took roles like [[TheScorpionKing a mercenary-turned-Scorpion King]], a professional bounty hunter (''Film/TheRundown'') and a grizzled Gunnery Sergeant Space Marine (''Film/{{Doom}}''). Now he's showing up in ''{{Race to Witch Mountain}}'', ''Planet51'' and ''TheToothFairy''.
** And even his wrestling career was a step down from his college football career, when he would spark bench clearing brawls by taking a swing at an opposing team's ''mascot.''
*** He's now doing a complete 180 in his film career as ''{{Faster}}'' was DarkerAndEdgier then any of his other movie roles, and he's also starred in ''FastFive''.
** When he came back to WWE in 2011 he still had to tone himself down a lot, since ''MondayNightRaw'' is TV-PG now. To his credit he at least tried to push the envelope a bit, as much as WWE would let him get away with anyway.
** One film critic noted that Johnson started doing self-parodies of his "tough guy" action roles with films like ''TheToothFairy'' and ''TheOtherGuys'' before he had a solid status as an action star in the first place. That's right, he's doing self-parody of a version of himself ''that never existed.''
* LLCoolJ ''used to be'' hard as hell.
* JohnCena is basically wrestling's version of this trope in effect. There was a time where he actually was rather profane, at least by wrestling's allowed standards. He himself chose to be more kid-friendly, just as WWE as a whole now is.
** It's been rumored that at one time WWE considered making ''[=SmackDown=]'' live but UPN was terrified of giving Cena a live mic; this is the same man that later, live on Raw, tagged a limo with graffiti reading [[MemeticMutation "JBL is poopy".]]
** There's also the bit where Cena's also shoehorned into the role by the writers, who wouldn't allow him to drop to midcard and turn heel after he dropped his title the first time.
* ReddFoxx became RatedGForGangsta through SanfordAndSon. Anyone who liked his bumbling old man Fred Sanford persona and sought out some of his old "party records" would be in for a shock.
* This can happen to franchises, too.
** The ''PoliceAcademy'' movies are rated, in order, R, PG-13, PG, PG, PG, PG, PG . . . and then came the TV show, which was even PG-er.
** ''Film/TerminatorSalvation'' and ''Film/LiveFreeOrDieHard'' were both fourth installments of R-rated franchises that ended {{Bowdlerized}} for a PG-13 rating.
** ''Fame'', movie from TheEighties, rated R. ''Fame'', the 2009 remake, rated PG. (Of course, that's only if you don't take its unrated edition into account.)
** ''Film/RoboCop3'' and ''Film/RoboCop2014'' had a PG-13 rating.
* When [[http://thephoenix.com/blogs/onthedownload/metallica_ArmaniOfDarkness.jpg this picture]] surfaced of {{Metallica}} singer James Hetfield, a lot of people had this attitude. Metallica's confessional, tell-all documentary ''Some Kind of Monster'' didn't help much either.
* Both played straight and averted by various members of the Music/WuTangClan. Whereas Method Man has had an acting career including a Fox sitcom and a cameo in a Zach Braff movie, Raekwon, GZA, and others have stuck to simply making hardcore hip-hop.
* Over in Britain we have DizzeeRascal. He started out making grime, and now he makes much more poppy, lighter music.
* Karen Mukupa. She started out in a hip hop/dancehall fusion duo with pot-smoking, anti-racist {{Natasja}}. Then Natasja died. Mukupa's music is now more down-to-earth and mainstream, and she devotes much of her time to writing kid's books about Africa and hosting reality shows.
* {{Odd Future}}, arguably. They started out as something like rap's answer to GGAllin, gratuitously rapping about rape and breaking pretty much every social taboo you can think of just to piss people off and goad reactions out of sensitive listeners, but with their first group studio album ''The OF Tape Part 2'' they shifted toward a more sensible form of SwagRap with less lyrical (and musical) abrasiveness, albeit retaining their scatological sense of humor.
* RedHotChiliPeppers started of as an energetic, sex-obsessed punk-funk band who were not afraid to use explicit sexual references in their songs...had a hit with the ballad "Under The Bridge", and gradually turned into one of the blandest alternative rock bands of the past few years. The difference in frontman Anthony Kiedis from his 1983 debut to now is striking.
* Music/{{Aerosmith}} becoming more prone to {{Power Ballad}}s kinda fits... but not as much as Steven Tyler joining ''Series/AmericanIdol''.
* Robin Williams's stand-up material is rather edgy and profane yet the majority of his movies (Mrs. Doubtfire, Aladdin, Jumanji, etc.) are family-friendly.
* Bob Saget built his television career on family-friendly roles, but his standup routines are among the raunchiest in the industry
* ''VideoGame/NamcoHigh'' is a lot cleaner in content than ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'', which is especially noticeable with the ''Homestuck'' characters who cameo. For a specific example, Dave Strider, whose quirk in ''Homestuck'' was that he spoke like a rapper (complete with loads and loads of swearing), doesn't swear at all in ''Namco High'', although he does retain his gangsta speech patterns.