Reporter: Michael Edwards
ELEANOR HALL: As a rap star, Napolean was a bad man.
His songs carried a message of violence and hatred.
But now he's found Islam, and has given up rap music to preach a message of peace.
And this week, Napolean is in Australia to talk to young Islamic men about Islam's path to enlightenment.
The World Today's Michael Edwards went along to his Sydney really to hear the former gangster rapper's message.
(Excerpt of Napolean rap song)
MICHAEL EDWARDS: Gangsta rap, guns, violence, women and money.
Uniquely American in its origins, rap has gone on to become the music of choice for alienated youth the world over, a way of voicing frustration at a life they see as deprived of opportunity.
For young Islamic men growing up in Sydney's south-west, it certainly has its allure.
(Sound of Napolean rapping)
MAN: It's a way to express your feelings and the way you live and the way things are going on in the world, in society, and how things get shifted from one place to another on race, colour, you know, different ethnic backgrounds and so-forth.
MICHAEL EDWARDS: It's mix of fast living, fast cars and fast women sells millions of records.
But despite its popularity, last Friday - in a stadium in Sydney's west - young Islamic men were being told gangsta rap isn't the path to enlightenment; Allah is.
(Sound of Mutah Beale speaking)
Those Arabic phrases were uttered by Mutah Beale, a man better known to most rap fans as Napolean.
Napolean lived the high life when he was on top.
He hung out with one of rap's biggest stars, Tupac Shakur, until he has shot dead. Napolean had the guns, the money, the women, and what he says was a hollow life.
But nowadays you won't be hearing any more of his rapping; he's made what must be one of the ultimate sacrifices for a performer - giving up art for religion.
MUTAH BEALE (Napolean): Just partying and drinking and women and guns and on drugs, money. You know, it's a fast lifestyle which, you know, to me, for me I happen to speak by experience, but you know, houses, cars, money, none of that stuff made me happy until I found Islam.
MICHAEL EDWARDS: Along with the rap ban, he now doesn't drink or take drugs, or hang with bad people.
Napolean was in Sydney courtesy of an Islamic Youth Group, to tell its members how to lead a positive life.
Life isn't easy for many young men in Sydney's south-west.
MAN: They talk about shooting guns and selling drugs and **** like that. Not that I do none of that but, you know, it's around where we live, you know, the Lakemba, Punchbowl, Bankstown, all that area.
MICHAEL EDWARDS: So it's a reality?
MAN: Yeah, a reality, yeah, I suppose.
MICHAEL EDWARDS: What sort of problems do you encounter in your life?
MAN: Oh, you stare at people the wrong way you know you're going to get into a fight, drug dealing, occasional shootings.
MICHAEL EDWARDS: And like many in the audience, Napolean came from tough circumstances.
His story began on the mean streets of Newark, New Jersey, and then to Los Angeles.
The cycle of violence began early his life. His parents were murdered when he was four.
His first group was called Dramacydal and his best friend was killed in what's believed to be an accidental shooting.
Napolean says he couldn't see a way through his troubles, until he found Islam.
He says it's a religion that can change even the most unlikely types.
MUTAH BEALE (Napolean): I have some friends that used to be bank robbers, used to be murderers, used to be killers. They are Muslim now. You won't hear even a cuss word out of their mouth. You won't even see them kill a fly. You won't even think they'd kill a fly.
MUTAH BEALE (Napolean): But many young men in the audience told
The World Today it's not so simple.
The scars of the Cronulla riots and their aftermath are still visible, and no matter what message they're told, many young Middle Eastern men remain on the lower rungs of the socioeconomic ladder.
Napolean's backed by the money he made from being a music superstar, while many of his audience live from paycheque to paycheque, if they're lucky.
To them, the stories from Napolean's street days, the ones he now doesn't tell, are far more realistic.
(Excerpt of Napolean rap song)
MICHAEL EDWARDS: It's different here than in the streets of Los Angeles.
MAN: Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I mean, like, we're not very far away from Los Angeles, you know, probably about five, ten years away we'll probably be in the same situation, you know, the violence and stuff like that.
(Excerpt of Napolean rap song)
ELEANOR HALL: Michael Edwards prepared that report.
http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/con...6/s1688265.htm