French Montana, “Bout Me” (Originally Published March/April 2013)

FRENCH MONTANA has been gearing up for the release of his debut album for more than a year. The time is finally here.

WORDS Adam Fleischer
IMAGES Clay Patrick McBride

French sits at the controlboard in Studio C, one of three recording rooms at Daddy’s House—the studio owned by his label boss, P. Diddy. It’s a cool, mid-January evening in New York City, six months to the day after the initial scheduled release date for French Montana’s debut album, Excuse My French, and the Bad Boy Entertainment rapper is finally sequencing the project. Tonight, he is playing snippets of records from the LP for a crowded room of friends and associates, including the lead single, the chart-topping “Pop That,” featuring Rick Ross, Drake and Lil Wayne. These days, it’s those kind of branded smash hit posse cuts that the 28-year-old is known for, but the process leading up to the eventual release of the album, now slated to come out April 16, has, at times, been an arduous one.

In the decade-plus since launching his rap career via the Cocaine City DVD series, which he founded in 2002, The Morocco-born, Bronx-raised MC has dropped some two-dozen mixtapes, helping bring hip-hop stardom back to New York. He’s also aligned himself with everyone from Akon, with whom he was briefly signed to beginning in 2009, to Maybach Music Group and Kanye West, who reportedly wanted to bring Montana to G.O.O.D. Music in 2011.

The 2012 XXL Freshman’s music neither seeks nor possesses the lyrical intricacies of a renowned wordsmith, but aided by French’s ability to expertly arrange songs and connect with listeners, that hasn’t stopped him from climbing his way to the top of the game.

After spending a couple of days with French, here’s two dozen interesting things we found out about the dude who wore the bear.

1. I think Excuse My French is gonna be the best album to come out in a long time from a New York rapper. In a decade, I think. I think I’ma shock a lot of people. They didn’t expect me to make good music.

2. Me and [50 Cent] don’t have no real problems. Fif is Fif. Somebody on your block that had the block, and the new kid got the best work on the block. You gonna get mad. Who this young nigga tryna come and take over? That’s kind of what it was.

3. I became legal about three years ago. I was illegal the whole time I was hustling and everything. I coulda caught one case and got deported. All it takes is one.

4. Everybody got the American Dream. I came here when I was like 13. My father had Visa connects and we came here illegally. He brought us here, but whatever he was trying to do with his money didn’t work. So he went back. My mother kept me and my brothers here. Then she got on welfare. It was to the point where she couldn’t do it, and that’s when I really was like, “I gotta step up and be the man of the house.” Everybody outside hustling. If you get caught doing something one time, you deported. You gotta be smarter than a regular person, and then you gotta do the most riskiest shit ever, you gotta be outside, hand to handing. Then you can’t really go to college, ’cause you can’t get no scholarship. So basically, it’s like you in a cage. That shit make me a fuckin’ monster.

5. When I was coming up, I witnessed a lot of rappers change they style ’cause it’s called an “album.” The name changes, but it’s the same strategy.

6. With Ross and Diddy, they don’t give you advice. You gotta watch them and learn.

7. I don’t like preaching Muslim religion to people. When you Muslim, there’s a million and one things you supposed to do. I try to do the things that I can do, as far as fasting, as far as give to the poor, as far as keep a good heart, as far as praying to God. Me and Allah got a certain relationship.

8. My whole goal was for me to make the Cocaine City DVDs so I could use it as a platform for me to showcase my talent. Everybody had a DJ. Uncle Murda had Green Lantern, Papoose had Kay Slay. Run up on people and freestyle to them? That don’t work.

9. My favorite part is knowing I was gonna do this and did it.

10. The day I was shot in my head, it was a regular day in the hood: Hustling, making money, trying to rap. I got caught at the wrong place at the wrong time, wrong people. It was like four years ago. It was at night. It was under a bridge. As it was happening, your life fl ash in front of you. You thinking, “Damn, this is how my life is gonna end? Like this?” Before I knew it, the noise just stopped, and I’m thinking, “Damn, these people came to kill me and now it’s just quiet?” You thinking, “Am I dead?” Then I get up, and there’s somebody lying there dead, and I’m bleeding out of my head. Then I go to the hospital, and after everything happened, and I recalled everything, I was like, “Damn, I was blessed.” It was defi nitely a situation where you like, “Damn, God had a plan for me.”

11. It’s kind of like you lose everything. I almost lost my life, then I lost my best friend, Max B, doing 75 years, then I lose my wife and my son. Once you make it in the game, you damn near move into the devil’s mansion.

12. Is it worth it to be successful? Of course. Success is what everybody do it for. Imagine if you had all the problems, with no money. That’s the worst.

13. I felt rich when I made my first million. I was, what, 25? I looked at a bitch that I was with, I was like, “Did you ever suck a millionaire dick?” As soon as I hit seven digits, I was talkin’ shit.

14. Music serenades peoples’ soul. I just want my music to be a part of peoples’ lives. I want my music to really have an effect on people.

15. I want to work with Adele. I love her music and her voice.

16. First time I was in a studio, I was in somebody’s living room while they mother cooking food. I was rapping over a Jay-Z beat, “Lyrical Exercise.” I did a freestyle, came back to the block, and let everybody hear it.

17. Even though I’m one of top three best hook-masters in the game, it’s still hard.

18. I’ve never been in an intimidating session. I always felt like every session I was in, I was motivated.

19. All my music has a message. It’s just what you take from it. There’s a song for however you feel.

20. You don’t have to say the craziest shit to become a legend.

21. People say I got too many features. I got 3000 songs. If you wanna listen to me by myself, go listen to it. We here to make hits.

22. I used to play AAU ball. Me being from another country, I couldn’t to go to college, ’cause I ain’t have no papers. I couldn’t get a scholarship, so that’s when I stopped playing ball and started hustling.

23. There’s nobody in the game right now that’s hotter than me without an album.

24. My last meal would be a lobster tail. I love seafood. But I hope I don’t know it’s my last meal.