Welcome to the Hip-Hop Ummah

When the Muslim hip-hop group Blakstone drive their van out onto London's streets to sell their album, it gets noticed. The black Mercedes is embossed with Islamic calligraphy and an image of a boy hurling a stone at a tank. Crowds gather, some to listen, others to talk, often about drugs and crime in their own communities, about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and about Islam. "A lot of young guys, they'll look at us and say, 'You're Muslim?'" says Blakstone founder Sam Ashley Welbeck. "'You don't seem boring.'"

They're not. Sampling soundbites from British Prime Minister...