You may remember former rapper Napoleon as a member of Tupac's Outlawz in the 1990s.
His real name is Mutah Beale, and since giving up music in 2005 he has converted to Islam and is now a motivational speaker.
Ahead of a documentary on his life being screened in Dublin, he spoke to Matt about why he got into the music industry, and why he decided to leave it.
Born in New York, Mutah Beale was one of the original members of Tupac's Outlawz group, which he joined aged 14. He describes Tupac as "a genius and a very hard worker. I didn't see many other artists with the same work ethic."
Beale had a difficult start in life. His parents were murdered when he was just three years old and he witnessed a lot of violent crime on the streets where he grew up.
"It was a violent city. I had many friends where one parent was dead and the other was in jail."
He thinks poverty makes people do things they normally wouldn't, and he got into music as a way of escaping this kind of lifestyle.
"I knew from an early age that this wasn't what I wanted for myself. I knew I had to make a change, and that's when I turned to writing music. I figured that would be my escape."
Life with the group was "a rollercoaster" for Beale, and he eventually gave up music in 2005.
"I was in the music industry since I was 13 or 14 years old. I lost a lot of friends so it wasn't the same for me."
"We have a lot of people in the rap industry who are involved in criminal activity and drug use, on a level that I'd never seen on the streets. It was worse than the environment I was trying to escape from."
Converting to Islam also enabled him to find a new sense of peace.
"Islam allowed me to discipline myself. It stopped me from drinking and partying and I became a family man. It made me want to raise my kids differently from the way I was raised."
He thinks Donald Trump has changed life for American Muslims: "I'm shocked to see the separation between people who want to take America back and the people who want to take it forward."
However, he maintains that the reaction he gets from most people in America is positive.
"A lot of people don't realise that Islam has always been there. One thing I will say is that most Americans are good people - they don't care what religion you are. If you're good to them, they're good to you."
