He’s A Bad Boy: French Montana Talks NY’s Gangsta Music, Rap Beef, Signing To Diddy’s Label & Much More
New York’s rapper French Montana is the hottest rapper to come out of NY since the early 2000’s. Last year, this 28-year-old Bronx native signed a deal with Diddy’s Bad Boy Records. Montana started Cocaine City DVD, back in 2003. The primary focus of the DVD was to showcase his talents and give other up and coming artists a chance to let their voices be heard and talents be seen. The DVD also included interviews from major rappers from New York, Philly, Atlanta, Miami and New Jersey. Within the first few months of launching his DVD, Cocaine City grew and became one of the fastest and best-selling âStreet DVDâs,â which nearly sold one million copies to date. The success of âCocaine Cityâ DVD series helped launch Montanaâs career as a rapper. HipHopDX recently caught up with Montana. He talked about the old French Montana vs the new French Montana, how he is staying afloat, New York’s gangsta rap, working with artists in the South, beef and more. Below are some excerpts:
On being a new artist. Yeah, I feel like the old me died and the new me came out. I feel like that happens with a lot of artists.
On the old French Montana. The old me is just the person whoâs trying get on; whoâs doing everything and touching everything. The position Iâm at now is like youâre on and youâve got to prove yourself. So the old me that was trying to get on died. The new me thatâs trying to prove himself is active right now.
On staying afloat. Just keeping my ear to the street and staying updated with everything. Keeping with people thatâs grounded. Thereâs always new fashion, thereâs new music, thereâs new styles. Styles donât stop coming out. If youâre a kid growing up, thereâs always gonna be new jackets, new sneakers, new everything. So I switch my style. When the styles change, I change with it.
Source: HipHopDX
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NEXT PAGE: FRENCH MONTANA TALKS NEW YORK’S GANGSTA RAP, WORKING WITH ARTISTS FROM THE SOUTH, RAP BEEF, SIGNING TO DIDDY & MORE
On his motivational quote ” âLife started getting easier for me when I found my hustle. I feel like once you find your hustle and you stick to your grind, life will get easier. It may not get easier right away depending on your hustle, but it will get easier as long as you stay consistent in persistent in whatever you do.â  Definitely, man. You shouldnât do nothing you donât love for the rest of your life. As long as you find something that you love out there and you just do it and stay consistent, you might reach levels that you never thought you would reach. Iâm sure Kobe Bryant wouldnât be Kobe Bryant if basketball wasnât his first love. I feel like when people force you to do something or work somewhere that you donât feel like doing youâre never going to reach your full potential. Thatâs how I look at. Thatâs my whole personal experience and Iâm sure thatâs your experience, too.
On New York being successful because of gangsta rap. Yeah of course. Ninety percent of the music that ever came out of New York by artists that were successful was the gangsta music. The other 10% might be Pop, but just look at it, man. Even if you go back to KRS-One to Rakim, everything that came out till now, you can probably name two groups that were Pop. And now they try to say that you have to be more than one thing. Youâve got to be Pop and Hip Hop. I donât agree with that. I think that if ainât broke donât fix it. Thatâs history. All youâve got to do is rewrite history with something new – new styles, new material, new movement. Thatâs what I think about it.
On working with artists from the South. I mean, I enjoy it. I donât know how everybody else feels about collaborating with “down South” artists. I enjoyed doing a whole Lock Out  mixtape with Waka Flocka. I enjoyed doing the whole Cocaine Mafia mixtape with Three 6 Mafia. I feel like all youâre doing is exercising your hustle, exercising your rhymes, exercising your style. I canât see certain rappers from New York doing a whole down South mixtape. Thereâs not a lot of artists that could drop a mixtape with Waka Flocka together or with Three 6 Mafia together. I like doing shit out of left field, that people will be like, âOh, he really just did this?â I think thatâs what keeps it exciting. If that donât keep it exciting, the closest thing youâre gonna come to that is dissing somebody to get attention. I came from a long history of doing that so I ainât gonna do that no more. Everythingâs working good.
On beefing with other rappers. Beefing is always gonna slow your money up. When you start beefing, everybody is gonna stop trying to spend money with you. You scare people away. Itâs a lot of things that happen when you start beefing with people.
On why he signed with Diddy. Diddy is a billionaire. Let me brush shoulders up with a billionaire. Let me make a quick 300-500 million. If youâre smart enough, you might make more than that. I donât look at Puff as a rapper. I look at him as a brand. Heâs gonna guide me in the right way, let me know where the moneyâs at. Heâs got time. Heâs hands on with everything. He be on top of everything all the time. I felt comfortable. I just felt comfortable and didnât care what people were saying.
Read the entire interview over at HipHopDX.