Alfredo Ríos and Roberto Tapia are big names in the realm of "narcocorrido," a subgenre of the Mexican norteño-corrido whose lyrics tend to speak approvingly of illegal activities. But the two musicians insist that their tunes do not celebrate the drug trade but are merely meant to entertain listeners, according to Los Angeles-based La Opinión.

"You want to sing about everything, but people tend to focus on 'narcocorrido' songs," said Ríos, who is best known by his stage name El Komander. "And now that I have already put in my years singing and making a living doing it, what I sing is much 'lighter.' I have love songs dedicated to the chicks -- to the girls that are my fans."

The musician also alluded to the violence that has at times haunted the genre.

In March, for example, the singer of the Tijuana, Baja California, band Los Plebes was found dead in the city's Montebello neighborhood; Rogelio Brambila Lizárraga had been shot multiple times with guns of at least two different calibers, according to SDP Noticias.

His violent death had come days after Javier Rosas, another narcocorrido artist, had been wounded in a shootout in Culiacán, Sinaloa, according to La Opinión.

Between 2006 and 2008 -- the height of the Mexican drug war -- more than a dozen prominent Mexican musicians were murdered.

"We do not want to be (another) 'shooting," Ríos admitted. "That is why we take care of ourselves."

Tapia, for his part, has been criticized in the past for his open references to Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, the head of the Sinaloa Cartel whom the U.S. Treasury Department once considered "the most powerful drug trafficker in the world." Guzmán was arrested by local forces in February 2014, and Mexican authorities have prohibited Tapia's expressions of support, according to La Opinión.

"You have to work, and so you become more careful when you sing; there will be places where we will be allowed to sing what we want, and (others) where we will not be," the musician noted. "I like it when people post comments about my songs on YouTube; there you see that they do like what I do, in spite of the prohibitions."