Muslim hip-hop has been gaining momentum at an almost exponential rate, with new MCs seemingly popping up almost every day. This isn’t so surprising, considering the political roots of the music form itself. However, the Muslim take on R&B is having a much harder time being accepted by the mainstream Muslim culture. Could this be to do the explicit and pervasive sexual undertones of the western form of this type of music, which seems to become more and more extreme as time goes on? If you strip away the shameless and excessive sexuality of western R&B, and you are just left with the music itself, there is something there among the beat and melodic harmonies that some modern Muslims living in mainstream culture find attractive – an alternative to the nasheed-based folk singers and groups. However, the tide seems to be turning, with ever increasing access to music through the internet and free iPhone ringtones. Farid Alhadi, an American Muslim R&B artist, believes that it’s the ability for hip-hop to avoid “more-than-plutonic love” that accounts for the disparity in popularity between Muslim hip-hop and Muslim R&B. Farid believes that he has found a way to get this Muslim R&B to the masses. As an artist, I choose to embrace the concept of romantic love in R&B. I know that romantic love is not forbidden in Islam – when practiced within permissible parameters, namely marriage. Loving women – your wives, mothers, sisters – is, in fact, a trait that defines a good Muslim. It seems we are able to rap or sing about pain, anger, etc., but for some reason, singing about love is taboo. Time will tell as to whether Farid is right, and whether he will be accepted by the mainstream. In the meantime we can hope that his music and other Muslim R&B artists will continue to provide alternatives to the perverse gyrations of artists like Rihanna, who has shocked the world with her explicit and even by most western standards, inappropriate, Rude Boy song and video.