Thug Life Army

Recently hip-hop rapper Napoleon of the Tupac Shakur (2Pac) hip-hop click the Outlawz retired from music and moved to Saudi Arabia.

All though his retirement left many fans of the hip-hop artist wondering and speculating on what was going on and when he would be back, it is evident that hip-hop rap artist Napoleon has indeed retired and has moved on to the next chapter in his life.

Before Napoleon announced his retirement he had finished an album with well known hip-hop and rap producer, and friend of both Napoleon and Tupac (2Pac), Johnny “J” on Johnny “J”s’ Klock Work Entertainment Label. That album has been put in the vault and will remain there until, if ever, Napoleon wants it released.

The rap artist has given so much to the world of hip-hop over the years and it is the right thing to do to respect his wishes.

I seen an article that will bring you up to date on what direction the ‘retired’ hip-hop gangsta rap artist is now headed in and to me it seems he is headed in a great direction.

We all grow and change in life. Some for the better and some for the worse, and some unfortunately never get a chance to grow older. What Napoleon is doing now is showing his maturing into manhood and finding peace thru his religious beliefs.

Napoleon should be held in high respect in the hip-hop community. I for one was looking forward to the release of his album but I understand where he is headed. Not as a hip-hop artist or a gangsta rapper but as a man. It seems he is out to make a difference and just not talk about it and we must respect him for that.

Here is some of the article in The Australian -

Give up your guns or face the music

Simon Kearney says policing and a campaign against the message of gangsta rap may cut crime in Sydney's suburbs

July 01, 2006

MUTAH Beale may not be familiar in mainstream circles, but to the Muslim gangs of western Sydney he is a music star. Better known as Napoleon, the offsider of slain American gangsta rapper Tupac Shakur, Beale, 29, is coming to Sydney later this month on a mission to convince notoriously violent gang members to give up their guns.

He is seen as a modern-day Cat Stevens. Until last year, Napoleon was singing about carrying his Glock pistol and praying to Allah while holding his "loaded 45"; but, like Stevens, he has recently given up music in deference to his Islamic faith and hopes by example to turn others from a life of crime.

"I come from the lifestyle where we was preaching gangsta music and also we was really doing most of that stuff," he tells Inquirer.

"The kids on the street they want to go do it, they end up in jail, or killing someone, or on drugs, something like that."

His visit is part of an effort by a Muslim youth group in Sydney's west to do something about gang violence that earlier this year led to three deaths in a spate of drive-by shootings.

The murders of two men, Bassam Chami and Ibrahim Assad, on a Granville street on March 29 led to the creation of a permanent police squad targeting Middle Eastern crime and a policy of zero tolerance.

"You''ve got to hit (the people responsible) at all levels," says the Middle Eastern organised crime squad's commander Ken McKay. "The blokes that are criminals have a total contempt for the law; (when) they''re not doing the high-level stuff, they''re driving around without licences. In the first month we''ve arrested over 55 people, everything from disqualified drivers to murder, drug and gun matters."

McKay rates his squad a success but it is early days. His intelligence tells him the criminal networks he's up against are unlike anything else operating in NSW.

Not everyone in the Muslim community agrees with the squad's approach. The death of Chami hit Muslim youth leader Fadi Rahman hard. He knew the promising young boxer, who he believes was putting his chequered past behind him.

Rahman believes police heavy-handedness cannot change people such as Chami, who had served a prison term for manslaughter.

"Taskforces are the totally wrong approach. What you''re doing is taking a minor criminal, putting them in prison with hardened criminals, (and) when they come out they''re more hardened than when they went in," Rahman says.

Beale was raised amid horrific violence, witnessing at the age of three the murder of his parents and, at 19, the 1996 drive-by killing of Tupac (2Pac) in Las Vegas. Later that year, his childhood friend and fellow rapper Kadafi was shot and killed in a drug-fuelled accident.

Click HERE to visit The Australian, and read the full article.