Iranian clerics have long insisted that rap music is the devil’s work, but they had no complaints when Amir Tataloo, a rapper with a hard-partying, gangster-style reputation, turned into a nationalistic admirer of Iran’s military effort in the Persian Gulf. Standing on the Damavand, a frigate in the Caspian Sea, Mr. Tataloo sings that “an armed Persian Gulf” is Iran’s “absolute right.”

The rapper delivers an ode to Iranian power, with flags waving, and soldiers singing along and stomping their feet.

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“What better way to attract the youth to our ideals than a rapper who subscribes to those?” said Mohammadreza Shafah, the head of the Soureh Film Club, a state-backed group that is seeking to inject life into Iran’s fossilized official propaganda.