CHANGE: A MESSAGE FROM A FORMER RAPPER

You may know him as Napoleon from the band Outlawz alongside 2Pac, but now, Mr Mutah Beale goes by the title of a business executive and has left the music years behind him. How, why and when did such a drastic change came about Mr Beale narrated in a special edition of THE STAGE (a newly built student run platform where people can come and give speeches over various subjects).

The whole session kicked off at around 9.20am on Sunday, 24th November. Mr Beale was welcomed warmly by the Grade 10s. Faiez Haroon (the person who actually played a major role in making this edition of THE STAGE possible) of Grade 12 took to the stage and gave a quick introduction of who Mr Beale is and why he was there on Sunday.

Mr Mutah then took the mic and started off with his childhood. An interesting fact is that before he was born, both his parents had accepted Islam. Unfortunately, his parents were shot dead in front of him when he was only three years old. He then went on to live with his grandparents who were strong Christians. They made him believe that his parents were killed by the nation of Islam and henceforth he grew up believing that it was Muslims who killed his parents.

There was a lot of negativity in the place he lived; shootings, robberies and the like. However, he decided to channel this negativity towards poetry and writing raps. He then was introduced to 2Pac by his old childhood friend; the three, along with a couple of others were the founding members of the band Outlawz.

However, he did not find the music industry very different from the ghetto neighbourhood he came from. One special incident he narrated was that of the studio of his first record label. His gang was in a fight with the gang of SnoopDogg. And later on, he got into a fight with his very own brother, whom he beat up so bad that he had to get stitches. Interestingly, the person who broke the fight up was an American Muslim in the studio at that time who then took Mr Beale’s phone number, and started inviting him to Islam.

In the meantime, Mr Beale had hit an all-time low, where he couldn’t leave the house without intoxicating himself to a certain extent. He’d spend days inside his mansions, depressed. He’d go out in his high-end cars, unsatisfied with life. Every day, the Muslim man (from the studio) use to call Mr Mutah to the mosque. “I finally did decide to go to the masjid (mosque) one day,” said Mr Beale, “but only to get the guy to get off my back.” However, when Mr Mutah reached the mosque, he realised something - people coming by buses, on bicycles and even on foot were so much happier than Mr Mutah, who at that time happened to be in a Lexus.

When he entered the mosque, he noticed that people from all races, skin colours and ethnicities were greeting each other and meeting each other. This was a new sight to see for Mr Mutah because all his life he had seen gangs and separation. This played a major role in his conversion to Islam. When the prayer was about to start a man asked him to pray with them to which he replied, “I don’t know how to pray. I have never prayed in my life.” The man said that when he makes sujood (when he puts his head on the ground) he can ask for anything, and Allah (God) would answer.

“When I put my head on the ground, I only had one wish, and that was happiness,” Mr Beale recalled. A few days later he accepted Islam and started to leave the industry behind him. Fast forward to 2019, he’s moved to Saudi Arabia and lives with his family, successfully managing his businesses.