The three tough guys in baggy trousers and oversize T-shirts strutted across the stage to a hip-hop beat, swinging their microphones from side to side.
Then, as a ball of fire flashed across a screen on stage, the tough guys began to rap. "Forgive us our sins and protect us from the fires of hell," they chanted, along with the Arabic profession of faith for Muslims: "La ilaha illalah" (There is no god but God).
That night at DePaul University, rap music and Islam merged in the form of MPAC, a Muslim hip-hop band from the South Side. The group, one of several in the United States, is part of a growing movement with ambitious goals.
"We try to have lyrics to uplift Muslim youth," said band member Luqman Rashad. "We want them to know that Islam can be strong and cool."
Muslim hip-hop is but one sign of a new and evolving American Muslim identity. Across the United States, Muslims are bringing their religion to Latinos and African-Americans, who are converting to Islam in greater numbers.
In return, they are learning creative ways to fuse Islam with other cultures and traditions.
"It is our goal to bring races together," said Jameel Karim, another MPAC musician. "Music is so powerful and universal."
While Muslim hip-hop bands have achieved varying degrees of success, they have one thing in common: The lyrics remain true to Islamic beliefs.
"We don't use curse words or say things that are offensive to women," Karim said.
"This song right here is dedicated to the man who raised me," MPAC sings on one of its CDs, referring to God. "If it wasn't for you, I couldn't write this song ... the din [Arabic for "religion"] Islam makes me strong."
Muslim hip-hop stands out in other ways too. At the DePaul concert, nearly all of the young women in the audience wore headscarves and soft drinks were served instead of alcohol.
Printed on T-shirts sold near the entrance were words from the scholar Imam Shafi: "You say you're just a body. But inside you are something greater than the universe."
The lyrics of Islamic hip-hop may provide an antidote to the more crude tunes in rap music, but they also present a challenge for the musicians: How to choose lyrics that move Muslims but do not alienate others?
Members of MPAC, for example, decided against including the word jihad in their lyrics.
The term in Arabic is usually interpreted as "struggle," but they know non-Muslims have heard it used by militant Islamic groups as a rallying call to wage war against the West.
For decades, Islam had a great influence on American rap groups such as Public Enemy.
Some members of that group were affiliated with the Nation of Islam, a mostly African-American organization whose practice of the faith differs from mainstream Sunni Islam.
But in the mid-1990s, Sunni Muslims began creating their own music. This form of hip-hop, produced largely with a Muslim audience in mind, is becoming popular in several cities, fans say, with the better-known groups including Native Deen of Washington, D.C., and California's Jurassic 5.
"One reason this music is catching on is because Islam in America is undergoing a revival and it reflects America as a melting pot," said Leila Mohammed, 22, who attended the DePaul concert.
Last month at Cafe N'Diga on the South Side, a haunt decorated with African and Islamic art, Muslims of all ethnic stripes gathered for "Community Cafe," a mix of tunes and talk about religion and politics. David Kelly, a musician in the underground Chicago hip-hop act All Natural who converted to Islam in 2001, served as emcee.
The program is hosted monthly by the Inner-City Muslim Action Network, a community organization that runs an array of programs on the South Side. Like many IMAN events, the gathering attracted Muslims from Latinos and African-Americans to Pakistanis and Arabs, as well as non-Muslims.
Such a scene is highly unusual. In the Islamic world and in the United States, each ethnic group tends to have its own mosque and Islamic community center. Rarely do Muslims of different cultures gather together.
As the youngsters sat on sofas and chairs, they sipped herbal tea and nibbled on sandwiches. Shortly after the program started, there was a break for the evening prayer.
The folding chairs were moved to one side, and Muslims of all ethnicities prostrated themselves, expressing their devotion to God.
On Saturday, IMAN brought Napoleon, a hip-hop musician from California, to the South Side to play his latest CD and participate in a pledge drive for peace. As Napoleon sat behind a small table, neighborhood youngsters approached him with their pledge cards, promising to stay clear of violence.
Hip-hop is well placed to help Muslims work to fulfill the centuries-old Islamic dream of a united, worldwide community of believers.
The music got its big start in the 1970s in the South Bronx section of New York City, where Kool Herc, the godfather of hip-hop, and other musicians fused a Caribbean and Jamaican beat with African-American culture. Their music contributed to the rise of a cross-cultural phenomenon popular today worldwide.
"Hip-hop with a clearly Muslim focus began to emerge as a generation of Muslims who were active producers and consumers of hip-hop culture became more deliberate in producing lyrics replete with Islamic references and specific to the Muslim community," said Rami Nashashibi, executive director of IMAN and a graduate student in sociology at the University of Chicago.
During a recent rehearsal at a studio near Greektown, Kelly explained how he, a former Roman Catholic, was inspired to convert to Islam.
"I heard Arabic words used in music," Kelly said. "I heard about Louis Farrakhan [head of the Nation of Islam] in a song by Public Enemy. "This prompted me to start to do research to learn about the differences between the Nation of Islam and orthodox Islam."
Following such a path is not unusual, said Nashashibi. "Many inner-city youth are introduced to Islamic philosophy through hip-hop," he said.
Now that he is a Muslim, Kelly is trying through his music to enlighten others.
"When I write the lyrics, I consider that I am writing for a Muslim audience. ... As I grow as a Muslim, what is important to me changes, and this is why my lyrics change."
Islamic hip-hop is one way Muslim youth can have fun but remain true to their faith, said Aminah McCloud, an Islamic studies professor at DePaul University.
"They don't have to give up living to be a Muslim," she said. "The music is not sex-filled, or profane. It is wonderful. It is a new way that young people, who are tired of racism, can create multicultural dialogue."