[entrancing musical flourish]
[soft, dramatic music plays]
Yeah. So, this is the quiet
before the storm comes.
This is my people, man.
[man speaking]
The comeback.
A young Moroccan boy.
- [camera flashes]
- [crowd cheering]
That started from the mud.
[crowd shouting]
These are my people.
[crowd cheering]
I put on for my country.
And, you know, I
was the chosen one.
What I do with that power is...
what's-what's really gonna...
put the name on what
I became, you know.
Oh, this is a story
About a young man
That's getting ready
to go off to w*r
But he leavin'
Said he leavin'
Said he leavin'
Oh, the only woman
That he never had
And this is what he said...
[Karim] Before I hit that stage,
when I talk to my
conscience, it's like,
I did everything the
best way I could do it.
Started this rap thing,
and from there, I'm
running with it,
and I'm gonna take it to
the top. This is history.
I don't wanna be the one
I wanna love you
[Karim] I can't sit here and
tell you I'm a superhero.
No, no
I just run with this
passion that I have
when I got a rush or something.
To make it in music, it's not
about the notes you can hit
or the raps that you can write.
It's just people have to
believe something about you.
[Karim] Everybody's
great at something.
I'm great at when I
get that sign from God,
I just accomplish things
that I can't explain to you.
You know what I'm saying?
It just happens like that.
I promise you.
[smooth jazz music plays]
[Fat Joe] The Bronx?
One giant ghetto.
sh*t just one giant ghetto.
There's no mansions.
There's no upscale nothing.
It's just the hood, B.
That land is, like,
ordained by God
for immigrants to migrate to
and get they feet wet.
It was Italians, Irish, Jews.
They moved out the Bronx,
then the Puerto Ricans,
the Blacks, and the
Dominicans came in.
Now they moving out.
And now you got the Mexicans
and the real Africans
and the Muslims.
What we got is a bunch of people
trying to get their way.
This sh*t is like
gladiator school.
You either prey, or
you're a predator.
There's just no way around that.
So if you see a m*therf*cker
come up from the Bronx,
he's a ill n*gga.
'Cause there were so many people
trying for him not to come up.
You get what I'm saying?
[camera shutter clicks]
[indistinct chatter]
[speaking Spanish]
[siren wailing]
[hip-hop instrumental
music playing]
[Odell] We met right here.
This is where I was raised
up, on this floor, 3A.
He's from 3D.
He came to the block.
From there, we grew a friendship
into a brotherhood.
He was a hell of a
basketball player.
You know, I thought we was going
to the NBA before all of this.
I was looking forward for us
to be on a side court at NBA,
us playing for the
Knicks or something.
[man speaking]
[Karim] The place to
come play ball at.
This is the only place
if you ain't hustling,
right here.
Keep you out of the streets.
Slinging crack rock or you
got a wicked jump shot.
This was the courts right here.
We used to leave
out our apartment,
bump heads together.
And be like, "Yo, like,
what are we gonna do
to get out of here?"
[Karim] From the
start, it was like,
"How do I escape poverty
without becoming a number?"
There's so much
temptation that you have.
You got to be just as strong,
so my escape route
and my therapy
was playing basketball.
[Zack] I really started
to understand, like,
when I start going outside,
and I'm seeing
dudes on the corner,
and I'm seeing the
gritty, the grimy.
You're hearing g*nshots,
people arguing, gambling,
people getting drunk,
people selling drugs.
[Karim] What's up,
bro? What's up?
I'm chill, bro. How
y'all doing out here?
See that?
Think you can f*ck with me, huh?
Hold up.
Are you ready for me?
Don't be talking,
'cause I'm ready.
[heavy bass hip-hop
instrumental music plays]
[indistinct chatter]
Next time I catch you,
I'mma bust your a*s.
- Thank you.
- Thank you.
[Zack] The crazy
thing about French is,
he would sit in the crib and
make highlights of himself,
like, all his best
highlights, like ESPN.
So I would see him with
three cameras on the floor,
all his best
basketball highlights,
and he was sending it
to colleges and sh*t.
But I guess after he
found about his status,
that sh*t just k*lled him.
[Karim] That sh*t
broke my heart.
Like, "You can't go
to college and play,"
even though I was getting
recruited by D2, D3 colleges.
I was an immigrant
with no papers,
like, living under the
radar for like ten years.
There's nothing. I
can't go to college
'cause I don't have my papers.
I can't get a job. I don't
have no Social Security.
I have no access to nothing
to become this dream that
I always dreamed about.
[man speaking]
[Karim] I used to look at
my father when I was young
like, "This n*gga
look like a star."
If I look like him,
I'mma be a star.
[Khadija speaking]
- [birds chirping]
- [indistinct conversation]
[Khadija speaking]
This is the first thing
that got me out of Africa,
was playing soccer.
I got my first visa.
I went to Spain, to
Barcelona. I played soccer.
That's what opened my eyes
to the rest of the world.
[heavy bass hip-hop
instrumental music playing]
[Khadija speaking]
[indistinct chatter]
[Abdela speaking]
America's land of the dreams.
Land of the free.
I mean, Morocco too,
but the opportunities
are not the same.
You could literally become
the president, United States.
We have a beautiful
king. We love him.
But you cannot be a king here.
When I was 13, my
father was just like,
"Yo, pack your
clothes up. We out."
He just came home one day,
said he had visas to leave.
So we just left.
[sighs]
Honestly...
it was the best thing
that could've happened
was for me to be born and
be in that atmosphere.
I feel it made me
the person I am.
I feel like it made
my hustle relentless.
It just made me not
take no for an answer.
How my father got them
visas, I don't know.
Us watching America,
you know, as kids,
all we see, you know, are
the buildings downtown,
you know, the sky
view of New York.
So they sell you the dream.
They don't show you that
behind those buildings,
there's the nightmare part, too.
Everything was different,
like, people, the streets,
the culture.
Having to adapt to that,
you know, was like
the biggest...
the biggest, like,
accomplishment
as, like, a Moroccan little kid
and having to learn English.
You know what I mean?
So it was a total
transformation.
[Karim] When you're
snatched out of everything
you know as a kid,
it's almost like, you
know, a culture shock.
They used to call me
"Bonjour" because all I did
was speak French, and
I didn't know English.
After, they were like, "We're
not gonna name you Bonjour.
Your name is 'French.'" That's
how my life started at 13
just right there in the Bronx,
the worst part of the Bronx.
I woke up in a new house.
We moved in with
my father's friend,
and all four of us had one room.
Me and my brother would
sleep on the floor.
My mother and my father
would sleep in the bed.
It was the grind of all
grinds, welfare, this, that.
My father's out working
every day ten, 12 hours.
Once one business after the
other started collapsing,
it became a nightmare for him.
I remember going with my father
to Harlem to 115th Street
to pick up his money,
because whoever he
opened the store with
is trying to finesse him.
After his businesses
started going down,
guess he went and applied
to get a green card.
And they denied that.
So him facing reality, "How
do I get back on my feet?
Let me go back to Morocco,
where I live like a king."
[Zack] I remember when my
father wanted to leave.
My little brother was just born.
My pop, he didn't like
the way French was going,
and he wanted to leave French.
[Karim] Emotions are
the enemies of facts.
My father, he didn't have
nobody to take the anger out on,
so he just started taking
the anger out on us.
This is a real situation now.
My mother, she was
tired of the abuse.
She was tired of a
drunk man coming home
because he lost his money.
I guess she probably saw a side
that she wasn't used to.
[birds chirping]
[water bubbling]
[liquid pouring]
[Khadija speaking]
[dramatic music plays]
[Karim] I would
love to understand
his intentions, you know?
But when my father
left, a part of me died.
And I never looked
back for that part.
[Karim speaks in Arabic]
[Zack] I just remember my
mother working two, three jobs.
Under the table, cash only.
My mother was working in
one of them halal places
where they cut chickens.
And you go there, you
pick what animal you want,
and they slaughter
it in front of you,
and you take it home with you.
That's where my
mother was working at.
[Khadija speaking]
I walked in on my mother
one time crying, praying
in the chicken spot.
You don't want to see
your mother like that.
[Zack] To see what
she was going through,
I was like, "I got to help.
I got to do something."
But French was already
ten steps ahead of me.
[Karim] I became my father
when he left at an early age.
We're not doing that.
It's gonna stop here.
I'm trying to go to college
'cause I played ball,
and it was like, "We can't
give you scholarship.
You have no papers."
I can't get a job.
I don't got no Social Security.
I'm a real immigrant,
fresh off the boat.
You know what I'm saying?
So it was just like,
what other options you got?
Hit the streets.
[Zack] Once they
k*ll your dreams,
you start leaning towards
the things that you know is
gonna get you the fast money.
The difficult part,
knowing that my mother
just sacrificed
everything for us.
And if I get locked up, I
just smacked her in the face.
But knowing if I don't
take these chances,
she gonna be working at
this chicken place 12 hours,
for a hundred dollars a day.
The only thing you can
do is take those chances.
[gentle music playing]
[conversation in Arabic]
[hip-hop instrumental
music plays]
[Karim] So, Lafontaine
High School.
So, I used to go to school.
Every day, there was
somebody out there pumping,
crack, whatever,
anything you want.
There was a barbershop
right downstairs.
Everything that goes on
get talked about there.
He a legend out
here, man, for real.
For real, one of the
last few standing.
You're a legend in my book.
- Feel me?
- My man.
Let them know, you used to be
cutting my hair, I had a vest.
Yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, all that.
Yeah, you sure you
want to go into that?
Yeah. That was the bad times,
- wasn't it?
- Yeah, yeah.
[Doug] You ain't want to
go through that, did you?
I tried to tell you 'bout that.
But like I said,
y'all little kids
was hardheaded,
you know?
- You don't listen to nothing.
- Doug was cutting my hair.
So he cutting my
hair from the back.
He go like this to the joint.
He like, "What is
this, a vest on?"
Yeah. "What is this, a vest on?
What you bringing in my store?"
Yeah, things like that.
I was getting a cut, and
I had to have a hoodie on,
the vest under, and a
40 right in my pocket.
And I'd be like, "Yo, Doug,
cut me facing the door."
- You know?
- Yeah, facing the door.
So nothing happens to you.
[Karim laughs]
- Yo, Doug, you can talk on here.
- Yeah. You kept me sharp, too,
'cause when you came
around, what I got to carry?
- [Karim laughs]
- [Doug] Right?
Nah, Doug, man, you still
over there, same spot?
Yeah, yeah, I'm still
at the same spot.
When y'all go in
and out of jail,
I'm still in the same spot.
- Nah, I've been doing good.
- I ain't going nowhere.
- I've been doing good, you know?
- Yeah, I hope so.
I was like 18 years old when
I started selling drugs.
I wasn't really thinking
about the drugs.
I was thinking about
getting deported.
There wasn't no social media
where you could
become an influencer.
The influencers was
the drug dealers.
That's all you see
when you walk outside.
So, people got the Montana
from Scarface, Tony Montana.
It was just an immigrant story,
him just making his
way from a dishwasher
all the way to being the boss.
You know? That
was the only time.
Escaping poverty was the
only time my spirits was up.
So we would all come together.
We would all sling whatever
the f*ck we got to sling,
whether it's g*ns, it's
coke, weed, this, that.
At first I did it to get
my mother out of there,
and it became something
that it was just like,
"Oh, I can make
this type of money?"
Got a Range Rover.
Living in a one-bedroom
with my mother,
parking it outside.
I was feeling myself.
I was feeling myself
to the point I was buying
sh*t I can't afford.
Start doing sh*t that's
not in my character.
But we was just
living so reckless.
Like, I had a g*n and
a vest on me for years.
I hid it from my mother by
putting it in sneaker boxes,
wherever I could hide it.
There was a risk of deportation
every time I got locked up.
I had to think about how
the police gonna catch me
before it even
crossed their mind.
French was one of the
first n*gg*s I seen
that put a p*stol in the
roof of the car, the hood,
tying a shoelace to a g*n,
putting it in a plastic bag,
tying a plastic bag, and
tying it to the battery.
You know when cops
pull you over,
they're gonna search the trunk.
They're not searching
the hood of the car
where the engine is.
It's not something
that you're proud of.
You know?
I think that God put
our back to the wall.
Your mother's getting tortured
'cause she made that
decision to stay with you?
That's something psychologically
that could break you.
Just like how he backed me
into a corner to make music,
'cause my life was gonna
end if I kept on doing that.
Now let's go. DFL over there.
Hellbound over here.
What the f*ck? Let's go.
Let's go, baby. Come
on, Gunna, let's go.
[man] Go, n*gga. It's
now or never, n*gga.
Listen, man.
I banged early, came pearly
Holdin' toast with
both hands, surely
It's the dope, man, dirty
Coke grams 30,
and hope, fam
Know my whole clan dirty
Whoa, there, shorty,
see that chrome 40
Keep it all the way 100, when
I first heard French rap,
I was like, "Aw, he trash.
He ain't goin' nowhere."
He kept at it.
The battle rap era was it.
That sh*t was everything.
n*gg*s talking sh*t.
"Yo, you want to put up some?"
Like, "Yeah, I
would put up some."
"You want to put up some?"
Before you know it, sh*t,
$4,000 or $5,000,
and you go meet up on a corner
and y'all battle,
and it's no real judges
or none of that sh*t.
In the beginning, it was crowd
and you got to keep it real.
You had to get molded
around, you know, real life
to rap in front of a bunch
of K*llers and drug dealers
and n*gg*s from the block,
and everybody got
to be looking at you
- and feeling you.
- If you lost, you lost.
Look at the n*gga,
give him a pound.
It was an agreement, a mutual
agreement, a consensus.
Just rapping outside,
like, going to Fight Club,
battling, like, putting up my
own money, $20,000 at a time.
You had to have the battle raps.
You had to have the song raps.
You had to have your
whole swag together.
[Zack] He took losses
and knew how to come back
and never lose again,
'cause when you
coming on the street,
$5,000 was like 100
bands back then.
After you lose that first five,
you gonna go straight home
and practice your bars.
[Karim] The hip-hop lifestyle
was a form of expression,
therapy for the soul.
I was going through things
that I could only
explain in my music.
Coming from Morocco
and landing in the
mecca of hip-hop,
you're gonna hear
a thousand noes
before you hear one yes
about anything you're
trying to do with rap.
They don't want to let nobody
into this hip-hop thing
that they created,
especially a kid from Africa.
So I had to prove myself.
Leave a hole in your chest
Size of Reggie Miller
head, m*therf*cker
It was either making music,
selling drugs, or kidnapping.
Like, what would you choose?
[car horn honks]
I don't know what y'all want.
Get whatever y'all want, man.
I don't know what y'all
want. This bodega life.
[upbeat music plays over radio]
- Thank you, brother.
- Thank you so much.
Damn, we, like, in... This
what you call a red zone.
See that box right there?
That's, like, a
shot-detection box.
You're automatically gonna
get riots. Type sh*t.
Back in those days,
it was way harder
to be respected
as a gangster
rapper or something
unless you looked and
felt a certain way.
You had to be a certain
type of individual
to get that credit
as a gangster rapper.
You know what I'm saying?
French, he's a street dude.
You know what I'm saying?
Like, and people wasn't...
they wasn't really seeing that
or really respecting
that initially.
Everything is word of mouth.
Who got shot is word of mouth.
Who went to jail
is word of mouth.
After a couple of episodes and
incidents, the streets seen.
[Zack] When he first
started doing music,
he was part of this little crew.
And, you know, French
was ahead of his time,
and he probably felt like
it was slowing him down.
He started doing his own thing.
And then he started
blowing past them.
Settin' the six fees,
lettin' my wrist freeze
[Zack] It was wintertime,
4:00 or 5:00 in the morning.
I remember my mother waking
me up scared to death.
Like, "Yo, there's some
people in the hallway
asking for your brother,
and they want to come in."
We had one of them lights
that be flickering
in the hallway.
So it's dark, and that
sh*t come on when it want.
When they came to my door,
it was like four
people in the hallways.
But everybody had big-a*s
North Faces on with hoodies.
And it was somebody that I knew
that I would usually
see with my brother.
He's, like, knocking
on the door.
He's like, "Bro,
I got to come in
and tell you something crazy.
They just shot your brother.
I want to come inside the crib
and talk to you and
make sure y'all good."
I still be having
nightmares about this.
It was one little lock that
never even really closed.
So it's just me and my
moms and my little brother.
He's still a baby at the time.
But I already adjusted
to all this...
all the f*ck and everything.
Roaming through the
house and finding things
and knowing what my
brother was dealing with...
I ain't let them in.
And they was getting
frustrated in the hallway.
They started getting loud.
And then I remember having
this neighbor next to me.
He woke up and then he came
to the hallway and was like,
"What's going on out there?"
And I think that's what
just shook them off.
I went to the studio and
just had this deejay,
one guy deejay with me,
not thinking nothing of it,
make music, getting
drunk, this and that.
Now we're leaving. I
say peace to everybody.
Nobody know I'm there.
This is, like, under the bridge
and right by Mott Haven project.
So, you can see, like,
there's like, they call it
the black hole back
here. Nobody come here.
So, go downstairs.
I just see two
dudes on the corner,
so I'm not thinking
nothing of it.
So we go towards the car.
As soon as we went in,
they was acting like
they was chilling.
They turned around,
pulled two hammers out,
and came towards us.
The deejay scattered.
So I knew they wasn't after him.
So I'm like, "Oh,
sh*t, I got set up."
I slipped and fell trying
to get out of there.
One of them fell.
While he on top of me
trying to grab the g*n,
he just yelling out,
"sh**t him. sh**t him."
Bop, bop, bop, bop, bop.
You know? And the
shots stopped.
And when homeboy
took off, I just...
You know, I threw homeboy that
was on top of me off of me.
You know, and he
was shot, you know.
I mean, we was both shot.
Probably still got some holes.
So I go to try to
sh**t him in the face.
When I go to try to sh**t
him, the g*n jammed.
- That was God again.
- [siren wailing]
[Zack] An hour later, French
girl at the time call me
and was like, "Your brother
just got shot in the head.
He's in-he's in ICU."
I end up going to
Lincoln Hospital
in the Bronx.
[Karim] The girl I used
to mess with at the time,
her mother came in.
I'm still in a daze. I'm
still, like, confused.
So she's like, "Yo,
homeboy that drove you here
is the one that set you up."
[monitor beeping]
[Zack] I go in his room.
He's literally just
sitting on his bed,
head wrapped, like,
you know what I mean?
And that's the first time I
really seen my brother cry,
like, as a man.
When baggy clothes was in...
I seen b*llet holes
all over his clothes.
He put my jacket on,
took all, like, the IVs
and everything off
him, and he walked out.
Me and him walked
out, out the hospital.
He put the hoodie
on, and we left.
[ominous music plays]
I was conflicted
from every direction.
The person that shot
me up came to my house
and broke fast with
me and my mother.
It was somebody
that I grew up with.
They came in there and said,
"Salam alaykum," sat down,
ate with me on Ramadan,
came to see my mother.
That's how real it
was in the hood.
My environment was cutthroat,
as cutthroat as it gets.
[Zack] From that point on,
I just seen his
whole life shift.
He didn't want to tell me
everything, but he knew,
like, deep down inside,
he had to do something.
I remember French
hustling on the street.
I remember French
doing crazy sh*t,
you know, just to help out
with the bills and everything.
The first time, you
know, I found, like,
some drugs in my crib or...
anything I seen that
was out of the ordinary,
I would ask him,
and he would always tell
me, "Look, we gonna be good.
Let me figure it out. I don't
want you to do nothing."
He always tried to be like
that father figure for me.
That was the breaking point.
That's when I was
like, "I got to stop
and I got to start
building my empire
and leave something
for my family
in case something
happened to me."
It was something that broke
my heart but fixed my vision.
You can't keep smacking
your luck in the face,
is what I'm trying to say.
[chimes tinkling]
Shout-out to Frenchy.
Hey. Hey, Frenchy.
Don't feel like n*gg*s
is stalking you.
You feel like you got some
stalkers on your back?
I heard n*gg*s bombing on you,
stealing on you, all
type of dumb sh*t.
You gotta be cool, be easy
when you're making DVDs, man.
Understand some people
take that sh*t personal.
[laughs]
[Smack] Trying to tell you,
I used to do the DVD sh*t.
You know what I mean?
I'm just a product
of the culture
of hip-hop, period.
I got into, like, you
know what I'm saying,
the battle rap culture
in high school.
You know what I mean?
In the lunchroom.
People, like, going
back and forth,
seeing who had
the dopest rhymes.
Then, you know, as we grew up,
it started getting personal,
you throwing dirt on
their name in the rhymes.
And that's what basically
hip-hop is all about,
this competition.
And he's an act,
he don't rap
[Smack] I'm listening
to Jada freestyle.
I'm listening to
Beanie Sigel freestyle,
all these Fabolous freestyles,
and I'm like, "Damn.
sh*t would be dope if
I could actually see
these dudes in the studio
laying down these tracks
or see them in their natural
environment in the hood,
the sh*t that I don't
see on BET or MTV."
Technology caught up with times
when you could actually
buy a handheld camera,
go home, and import
that footage and content
into your computer,
make your own edit.
That sh*t fascinated me.
That sh*t was dope. I
was like, "Oh, sh*t."
Got a computer, got
a camera, FireWire.
You know what I mean?
And import my sh*t.
And I just started running
outside doing videos
for everybody in the hood,
running up on dudes
like, "Yo, what's up?
Let's do a video. You rap?"
'Cause everybody raps.
Mind you, this was
all prior YouTube.
Back on Smack.
You getting some
first live footage.
You got me first.
[Smack] Everybody
started giving it up.
It was a snowball effect.
I was dropping DVDs
like once every quarter.
It's so easy to get a glimpse
into everybody's life,
but I preferred a time where
it was curated, you know?
And the DVD era
was a curated look
into American rap life,
which, at the time,
we all felt was
the most, like, wide-eyed,
surreal, unattainable lifestyle.
We would just sit
there, mesmerized.
Bang, bang. We in
the building, man.
Anybody still can get it.
You know what it is, man.
- I'm out here.
- Smack!
Those DVDs were,
like, my tutorial
for what I wanted to be.
And French was, like,
such a pioneer in that.
Let me tell y'all something.
I'mma drop a jewel, man.
Like, anything that's
successful in any business,
if it's successful
and have an impact,
within the first 15
months from your creation,
you're gonna have a competitor
in your marketplace.
Everybody's going
through the door.
I'mma try to slide
through the window.
Play some sh*t for you.
[Karim] Smack DVD was out.
Me and my bro Cams
was watching it.
We was drinking, watching it,
like, "Let's come out
with our own DVD."
When I met him, he's like,
"Cams, I got to get this money.
Cams, I got to get this money."
You know what I
mean? At the time,
I was into getting money.
[Cams] At the time,
everybody was,
"My sh*t is crack."
So we was like,
"Our sh*t is cocaine. It's
raw. It's rawer than crack."
Cocaine City, then that's how
the epidemic of that started.
[old school hip-hop music plays]
He would bring
everything to the crib.
He'll be like,
"Box all these up.
Put the paper in the plastic,
put the co... put the
CD in it, then put..."
In my head, I'm like,
"Alright, 5,000 DVDs."
He in there slaving me.
As a young kid, I'm like,
"Man, that's dope. Do it."
That's why I'm here
putting all these
DVDs together for you.
Back in the day, we
used to watch Smack.
We used to watch it for...
All the sh*t was poppin'.
It had everybody on there.
Shea Davis and all that sh*t.
You remember that sh*t?
It had everybody on there.
[overlapping chatter]
Cocaine City, that was our sh*t.
I remember the clip of you
pulling out all the money.
[Karim] And it
fell on the floor?
And they used to... After that,
they started calling me French
'cause we look the same.
He just had this attitude
where he was kinda like...
He was kinda this
New York villain.
It was, like, him and his
people against whoever.
I had this idea of
French in my head
as this young, untouchable
mob boss from New York.
It just was wild, man.
It was a wild time.
[man] Our sh*t was
booming every which way.
And our whole marketing plan
was different from Smack
'cause we didn't
want to be Smack DVD.
You feel me? We
was Cocaine City.
If you had kind
of like a pop song
or something at that time,
you probably wouldn't
be on Cocaine City.
You know, that was not...
that was not the vision.
Cocaine City!
Cocaine City!
Everything was built
off controversy.
Going back in
there, talkin' 'bout
- call the police. You get that?
- [man] Nah.
You ain't get that?
You ain't f*cking get
that? You ain't get that?
That's the studio right there.
That's that n*gga's car.
Get the police. Get how
many police is out here.
[man] Oh, you want
to get even with me?
Literally had w*r with people
over certain sh*t
we put on a DVD.
n*gg*s go get that DVD,
see who getting
they chain snatched,
who getting robbed,
who getting beat up,
sh*t like that.
n*gg*s can't front
on French, though.
You know? At the end of the day,
he made it happen.
[Zack] His plan was, "I'mma
put myself on each DVD.
Then after that, I'mma
just let the music grow."
Wanting to be a rapper
was always the goal.
People was paying to
promote themselves.
I was promoting myself
and getting paid.
So we'll press up 50,000
DVDs, sell them $5 apiece.
How much is that? $250,000.
I made the $250,000,
and everybody just
finished watching me.
By the time they realized it,
I was already making
crazy cake off of it.
[Zack] As I got older,
our conversations
only became realer.
You know what I mean?
Our biggest conversation is
when, like, my father left
and when he got
shot in the head.
That was probably, like,
the game-changers for me
as a teenager, 'cause
in my mind, I was like,
"If-if this man is
outside hustling,
trying to provide for my family,
who gonna be there to
watch out for him?"
[Karim] He learning
things. He hearing things.
He see me in cars, see me
in this. He see me in that.
The little change you
give him is not enough.
He want his own
piece of cake now.
So he want to make
a name for himself.
[Zack] From there on
out, I was just, like,
doing everything that
was just, like, negative,
carrying pistols on me.
I started doing ill*gal sh*t,
like, me and all my friends,
and I stopped even
seeing French.
I stopped seeing him for like...
It would be months we
wouldn't see each other.
And that's what really made
me a different kind of man.
I start moving on my own. I
built my own little circle.
His friends at the time
would be calling him like,
"Yo, your little brother's
moving around like this."
You can fight with
somebody all you want
about what you want for them.
But he had his own...
you know, his own vision.
[Zack] He would
come pull up on me.
Everybody around me in, you
know, expensive-a*s sh*t,
like new cars, new
jewelry, new everything.
We was 18, 19 at the time.
And at that point, he was
just looking at me like,
"Man, you got no idea."
[Karim] I think my lifestyle
was a negative influence,
but there was nothing else
that was positive around us.
And it was to the
point where I remember
he got a bunch of
money for something.
I grabbed it from him
to hold it for him
and to help him, you know,
flip it towards something
that I was doing, this and that.
I held it too long,
and he came to grab it.
We ended up fighting,
broke the table, this and that.
I'm like, "He's
getting older."
So he ain't even
let me, you know,
teach him how to do his money.
Once I had that fight
with him, I was like,
"Nah, he grown now. Let him
go figure out how life is."
She wanted us to
have a safe life.
She didn't want to
bury none of her kids.
My moms is quiet.
She-she got her own beliefs.
She don't never
deal with people.
She don't never befriend nobody.
Like, you know,
after my pops left,
I never seen that
woman with another man.
Not once.
Imagine her being
in the States alone.
All her sisters and
brothers is in Morocco.
Imagine not seeing your brothers
and sisters for
20-something years.
You there alone.
[upbeat hip-hop music playing]
[indistinct conversations]
[speaking in Arabic]
[laughing]
She really praying.
[Zack speaking]
I asked if she was nervous.
She said, "What you mean,
I'm nervous? I'm happy."
"Why do you think I'm
nervous? I'm going to court?"
25 years.
[gentle music plays]
We did the DVDs for
like five, six years.
Six, seven years French was
unsigned until he met...
until he met Max.
Y'all can hate all you want
It gotta be the life
I look like a boss.
I feel like a boss.
I taste like a boss, n*gga.
Max Biggavel.
Yeah, it gotta be the life
The life
We for real, dawg
we will k*ll y'all
sh**t you up and cut
you, f*cking with us
[indistinct chatter]
[song fades]
[birds chirping]
[indistinct chatter]
[Max B] I be doing crazy
sh*t, cheating on my women
and just dramatic bullshit.
You hear all that
sh*t in my music.
"He's a f*cking
degenerate, that Max B.
But, boy, do he m*therf*cking
write them songs."
When they say sh*t
like that about you,
I don't give a
f*ck, I don't care.
"Oh, boy, oh, boy,
that m*therf*cker Max drunk,
drunk, degenerate, horny.
Damn, that m*therf*cker
rich as hell.
He's a rich, talented
m*therf*cker, though."
And when they finish with
lines like that, who cares?
Who gives a f*ck what they
say? I don't give a f*ck.
I think I met
French in like '07.
I was doing my thing.
He was doing his thing.
That was it. Once we started
f*cking with each other,
that was it. Like,
that's my man.
When I first seen him,
he had somebody play
the video for me.
It was, like, a
little Internet joint.
They was like,
"Look at his sample.
He wanted to holler at you."
We ain't even know each other.
I was seeing little
videos he was doing.
I'm like, "Alright,
son on his sh*t."
So next thing, we hooked
up, we got to the studio,
and then that was it.
We worked on a couple
little underground cuts.
We started f*cking
with each other.
Then we got cool and
we was like brothers.
Our relationship based on
more of, you know, friendship.
That's my dude.
Hey, Frenchy, baby,
let's get them.
[hip-hop music playing]
So you would grind. If you had
a nice DVD, back then Smack,
if your camera sh*t was
up, your WorldStar sh*t,
that's how you was popping.
Max was the hottest thing
in the city, smoking hot.
The only person that
was going more viral
than Max and me was Tupac when
he was beefing with Biggie.
At this time, me and
Max be running the city.
We dropped "Coke Wave 1,"
"Coke Wave 2," Coke Wave 3."
There's nobody f*cking with us.
[Max B] You know how many times
we ran up on m*therf*ckers
and gave that out?
n*gg*s was like, "This
sh*t look official,"
and grabbed it 'cause
it looked good?
Just 'cause the way French
would package the sh*t.
[up-tempo hip-hop music plays]
Them n*gg*s would come
to my crib every day.
I got a studio in my crib.
Everybody was at
my house every day.
Yonkers every day.
Cookouts I did every day.
We spent time together.
[Karim] I was from the
Bronx. He was from Harlem.
It was one of those
friendships, man,
that was like we grew
a bond like brothers,
like, outside of the music.
French such a
good-hearted person
that, you know, Max had problems
that became our problems.
Anybody that's affiliated
with that whole sh*t,
you help that whole sh*t
out, we taking you down, too.
[Zack] You couldn't
separate them two.
French beef became Max beef.
Max beef became French beef.
At the time, Jim Jones
was one of the biggest
artists in New York.
Him and Max B, he had Byrd g*ng
and they had just broke up.
Max wanted to feed his family,
wanted to get out
of his contract.
I felt where he was coming from.
I wasn't trying to get
to the technicals of it,
like, "Oh, yo, Max, he's
right, or he's right."
It was like, "That's
my n*gga. Let's ride."
French's affiliation
with Max B was...
It was a problem out here.
- A big one.
- It was a problem.
n*gg*s lip-synching
and swagger jacking
over there, baby.
Them n*gg*s over
there stealing songs,
swagger jacking
and lip-synching.
Milli Vanilli-a*s n*gg*s.
Max B was having a
situation with Jim Jones...
Jim, all them n*gg*s is enemies.
About money, about,
like, credits,
and publishing, and
everything else.
Y'all made incredible
music together.
I made incredible music.
All he did was rhyme 16s.
You a bum-a*s n*gga. You
just a bum-a*s n*gga.
You don't know no better,
man. You're a bottom-feeder.
Now, French may not have
directly been at Jim Jones,
but he was standing next to Max.
So it was an issue.
Where I stand in the DVD game
is if you gonna make a DVD,
have some integrity, like
you should have in life.
So when you DVD'ing
and you recording
all these artists
and sh*t like that,
some n*gg*s don't give a f*ck
too much about life.
Yeah. I'mma dust this sh*t off,
get this sh*t out the
way, get this verdict,
and we gonna make history.
When sh*t is all said and done,
y'all gon' see
who the victorious
vainglorious is.
[somber music plays]
[no audible dialogue]
Can't get too close
to this building
with them cameras.
I'mma let y'all know when
to put them shits down.
I don't need that extra
attention over here
f*cking with this Bergen County.
Max trial start.
You know, we was living wild.
Like, we was just,
like, you know,
rock stars at its fullest.
You know what I'm saying?
And it kind of backfired.
He would sh**t a video
outside the courthouse,
and I'd be like,
"You're bugging."
His lawyers doing interviews.
I see y'all n*gg*s
when we come out.
Yeah.
Come on.
[dramatic music plays]
[Karim] You take
away my other half
and you put me in the
middle of all these beefs.
Max went in, it was just
like the stocks just dropped.
[Cams] Max, at that time,
it looked like everything
was about to work,
then Max goes to jail,
and now everybody's kind
of counting French out.
I had to lock in like I
never locked in before.
[hip-hop music playing]
You know, m*therf*ckers
used to clown me
'cause, you know,
I was just skinny,
goofy f*cking white kid,
you know what I'm saying,
like, running around.
And one guy... my man was like,
"You like the Harrison
Ford of this sh*t."
And I was like, "Nah, man.
I'm the Harrison
Fraud of this sh*t,
'cause I ain't like all
these other m*therf*ckers."
I was working, doing beats
for different rappers,
and, you know, just
playing my sh*t for people,
trying to get on, you
know, so to speak.
And I had did a
beat for this guy.
French heard it and was
like, "Who did these beats?"
I definitely always
wanted to go left.
And I think with me and French,
that's kind of what
drew him to me.
He comes to my studio. I
have no idea what to expect.
The only... I knew French
from Cocaine City DVD.
I was excited, but
I also was like...
Didn't know what to expect.
The first couple times,
we were feeling each other out,
you know what I'm saying,
and figuring it out.
When we first met up, he made
me play him a million beats.
He would key in on
stuff that he liked,
and I would take notice of that,
and then I would go
farther down those roads.
We were both sloppy,
meaning, like,
the vocals that
he was recording,
he was layering, you know,
a hundred takes on them
and a million
doubles and all that.
And I started to be like,
"Yo, don't double that.
You know, like, don't
lay so many layers.
Your voice is dope. Let
it just cut through.
Let them hear it."
So we were giving each
other that feedback
at that perfect moldable time
where, like, we were both really
figuring it out
together, you know?
[Karim] His sound was
different. It was epic.
It was more, like, dark
and soul at the same time.
And it's just that sound.
Some things you can't explain
when it comes to music.
It's like you just got to have
music grab the ears of people
when it comes from your
soul, when it comes from you.
You know what I'm
saying? The same way how
it grabs you, it's gonna
grab somebody else.
Max B, the day he got sentenced,
I was the most
blackballed artist,
you know, in New York City.
So when he goes, Jim Jones
is the number-one
rapper in New York.
So you can't play
me in the club.
Certain deejays
got to pick a side.
People is never
loyal for friendship.
They're loyal for opportunity.
It goes back to music
controls the streets.
But still, I was a people champ.
I was the underdog.
There's no car in New York City
that was driving by
that listened to hip-hop
that didn't have me
and Max B in their car.
[horn honking]
[Percy] Jim was on a
whole nother level.
Like, he was through the roof
with the music and everything.
He basically had New York in
a choke hold at that time.
French is not even
on that level.
You know what I'm saying?
What you beefing
with French for?
And it dawned on me,
French is up and coming.
I've seen a few
artists experience it.
I ain't seen a ton of
them get through it.
You know, he had a hard time.
He had a real hard time.
With that, French
reached out to me.
He was like, "Yo, P, yo, I
need you to do me a favor."
And I'm like, "What's up?"
He's like, "Yo, I need you
to talk to Joe for me."
[horn honking]
[hip-hop music playing]
[Fat Joe] I grew
up in the projects
called Forest Projects.
And we was getting a lot
of money in the streets.
And I wanted to rap, too.
So I went to the
Apollo Amateur Night
and I came in first place
like four weeks in a row.
I knew that I had to
get out the game...
'cause I was either
gonna die or go to jail.
So thank God I made the change.
And I went and I rapped,
and the people embraced me.
I used to coach at the Rucker,
and the first time I
remember meeting French
is every game I was coaching,
he would be sitting in
the back of the Rucker
waiting for me to come up.
He would always try to have
these conversations with me,
but he was a little n*gga, and
I'd be like, "Yo, alright."
I'd keep it moving
on him, go inside,
and I'd go coach 'cause
I'm focused on the game.
And he would always
hand me a DVD.
He would always hand me a DVD.
I thought he was the DVD guy.
You know what I'm saying?
Like, you know,
putting it together,
and then he turned
into an artist.
So as he was getting more and
more hotter in the streets,
he kept telling me, you
know what I'm saying,
"My name's getting
up. I'm getting hot.
You see me, n*gga."
This and this and that.
So my son was a
little kid, 13, 14,
like, "You got to listen."
I'm like, "Him? I
know this n*gga.
What are you talking about?"
"Oh, he's the best.
He's the nicest."
He's the this. He
kept hyping me up.
I'm like, "f*ck out of here."
He kept playing the sh*t
over and over and over again,
and I'd be like, "Yo."
Him and Joe met up.
Joe said, "Let me
hear what you got."
He played him "Shot Caller."
And Joe was like...
So Joe, when he's
excited about something,
you don't really see
a reaction out of him.
He just was like...
But in his mind, he was
like, "Wow, this is crazy."
I was really trying
to front a little,
like, "Joe, don't get
hype, don't get hype."
This sh*t is ridiculous.
Wanted you to come and hear
it 'cause, like, from you,
like, it means a lot.
Trust me, man, this remind me
of some back-in-the-day sh*t,
man, when Biggie used
to play me his album.
Ain't nobody f*cking with this.
["Shot Caller" plays]
Wanna be with a
baller, shot caller
Could tell by her aura,
she want a shot caller
Wanna be with a
baller, shot caller
Could tell by her aura,
she want a shot caller
D-D-Dippin' in the
'lac, three in the back
Two if ya fat,
pimpin' is a fact
Fresh up out the street,
hot, jump to the top
I be French Montana
from the, the, the block
"Shot Caller" started
as a freestyle for Flex.
[Karim] I did a record
for Funkmaster Flex.
Crickets.
Didn't take it. The
mixtape dropped.
I go inside one of
the strip clubs,
and the deejay pressed play.
They was like, "Hold on,
French Montana, that's you?"
They was like, "I don't
care what you doing.
This is the record
of the summer."
So it was him always
having that vision
and being able to be like,
"f*ck who don't believe.
We believe, and, like,
that's the most
important thing."
[Karim] Fat Joe will tell you,
he had to go to
Funkmaster Flex personally
and tell him, "You
have to play this kid."
Yeah, he stepped up for me,
when I was the most
blackballed dude ever.
Love y'all. French Montana,
the future. Terror!
[Karim] There's special
moments in an artist's career
when somebody step up for you,
'cause it don't happen a lot.
What I respected the most is,
French didn't talk to me
about the situation
he was having.
He was really just
talking about his music.
"Shot Caller" came out.
Then it was just like...
[hip-hop music plays]
[Flex on the radio] I'm telling
you what it is, New York.
Don't sh**t the messenger.
I'm telling you what
the streets are saying.
I'm telling you what
the streets are saying.
[distorted voice]
Lot of heat on this.
Ha!
And after this, we gonna
go into that "Ocho Cinco."
French Montana is
currently wearing the crown
in this town.
Number-one song in New
York City right now, BX!
Shorty got potential,
I could be her sponsor
Met her backstage at
a Summer Jam concert
Hair like Rihanna,
shoe game was awesome
Could tell by her aura,
she want a shot caller
There's a gene, there's
a DNA in any person,
whether they become a
successful barbershop owner,
or they become the number-one
teacher in the world,
or the real estate or the
rapper or the wrestler,
or whatever the f*ck
you want to call.
These people have a thing
that they will not quit
till they make it.
[crowd cheering]
[Karim] I had my-my career
in full control in my hand.
You could've signed me anywhere.
I wanted to meet up with Kanye.
Next day, I flew to Vegas.
It was the right moment.
[soft music playing]
When I realized I made it
is when I cashed my first check.
This was my dream,
to get paid off something
that I loved doing.
Long way from the chicken
spot with my mother.
Got my mother a house,
and French Montana
became a household name,
which cracked that ceiling
that no other rapper
from Africa cracked.
From here on out,
ain't no limit.
- ["Pop That" playing]
- [crowd cheering]
[man] ...Montana.
[crowd cheering]
[Fat Joe] When I say "French,"
you all say "Montana."
- French!
- [crowd] Montana!
- French!
- [crowd] Montana!
[Fat Joe] When I say
"Coke," y'all say "Boys."
- Coke!
- [crowd] Boys!
- Coke!
- [crowd] Boys!
- Coke!
- [crowd] Boys!
[crowd cheering]
[crowd continues cheering]
- [Drake] ...French Montana!
- [crowd cheering]
Miami, look, this is my
brother in real life.
And the funny part is
that we look alike,
but we think alike. It's
all love. It's family sh*t.
[Angie] HOT 97. That's #2
today on the countdown, HOT 97.
French Montana's
in the building.
[man] In the building!
You're the hottest
rapper from New York...
Thank you.
Clearly, in the country
doing something.
[indistinct chatter]
Here we go!
My whole hood love me
But now a n*gga
wanna touch me, haan
I ain't worried
about nothin'
n*gga, I ain't
worried about nothin'
Everything he got,
man, he earned it.
Everything he get he deserve.
We're in the 2%
when it comes to
writers and creators.
I can't say I've done
that with many artists,
it's not even five artists.
- Wayne can do that.
- Wayne does that.
Drake does that. Who else?
- Jay-Z.
- Jay-Z.
But when I say somebody
that could come
right there and...
French Montana, he one
of those m*therf*cker,
he a party-m*therf*cker with me.
He is somebody that would
create records all night
if you in there with him.
Listen. French became very
successful as a rapper.
- Definitely.
- He transitioned
and did a lot of sh*t.
French to me was always
a marketing genius.
He was kind of
ahead of his time.
[upbeat hip-hop music playing]
[indistinct chatter]
[Zack] It was our time
and it was his time,
his first album.
Had the biggest records on
the streets in New York.
He was moving. French
was just blowing up.
Wait, wait, wait,
wait, wait, wait, wait.
[music fades]
Yo, what's up, fool?
It's your n*gga Chinx.
Coke Boys in your
m*therf*cking area.
Come here.
This is my brother Chinx.
[man] Wants to dip it, baby.
[laughs] Don't reach.
You ready?
All the way down like this.
[laughter]
["Coke Boy Money" plays]
Oh, sh*t, Jughead just
bought a 5, g-head
A King Tut piece
'Bout the size
of Little Maurice
'Fore I step out the
crib, put the 40 on me
When you greet a n*gga,
do it how you would an OG
Shots rained, bum
dropped his 40-ounce OE
It's kinda hard
tryin' to survive
In New York streets
Chinx always just
used to want to work.
That's all he...
"Oh, what's up, bro?
I want to work."
You know, at that time,
him and French was also
building a bond, as well.
China silk, diamond rings
[Karim] Chinx used to
always come around Max B.
Used to be this kid
rapping. I used to see him,
but once Max got locked up,
I just took Chinx with me.
He came with me on
every tour I went to.
When I went down south
to learn how they move
down south, he was with me.
I never made a dollar off Chinx.
That shows you how much
love I had for him.
[Zack] It was really
experiencing everything
for the first time together.
Jets, vacations, shows, tours.
[Karim] Just a hungry kid.
Like, I see so much ambition
like I had in my eyes.
He was like a student
in the classroom
'cause he was learning, he
was soaking everything up,
he was absorbing the game.
And I knew he was
gonna go and be, like,
one of the best artists.
[Harry Fraud] I remember
watching him record
and, like, him just
pacing around the studio
and for like 20 minutes,
and then he's like,
"Alright, I'm ready,"
and I'm thinking,
"He's gonna write it in
the booth, line for line."
He went in and spit the whole
sh*t clean like a technician.
And I was like... I
remember being like,
"Oh, this kid is different."
He caught the "I'm
a Coke Boy" single.
So he was doing the same
thing that I was doing
and he was catching
one after another.
Then the moment...
my proudest moment of
him about to blow up
turned into the most
miserable time of our lives.
m*therf*cking coke boy!
[ominous musical flourish]
[Karim] One morning I woke up
crying and told my mother...
I was like, "I don't
know why I'm crying."
I get a phone call,
"Your brother locked up."
When you have things
that you can't afford,
and you have to
maintain that lifestyle,
you end up doing things
out of your character.
So he ended up going with
his homeboys, you know,
and they got locked up
for running up in
somebody's house.
While he's blowing up,
I'm in a cell. Like, wow.
Why wasn't-why wasn't I patient?
Why wasn't I... You
know what I mean?
Why didn't I, you know,
remind myself to chill?
Everything was moving
too fast for me.
[news anchor] A rising
star in the rap world dies
just hours after
performing a show,
m*rder*d in an ambush in Queens.
CBS 2's Steve
Langford reports...
I just remember waking up...
and just looking at my phone,
and I had so many text messages,
and I just fell on the floor
and just laid on the floor,
bro, for a long time.
You know what I'm
saying? And just cried.
Cried and cried
and cried and cried
and then called French
a couple hours later.
You know, we didn't
really say much.
You know, French broke
down on the phone,
'cause them n*gg*s had
the best relationship.
They did everything together.
That was like his right hand.
Went everywhere
together, tours and sh*t.
While I was in prison,
they was doing everything.
And for French, man,
that sh*t just...
it k*lled his spirit.
You just wake up, and
people tell you Chinx died.
Dropped the phone. Just...
cried, like...
Feel like somebody ripped
your f*cking heart out.
[Zack] French, he look
at hisself like, damn.
"Everything that you love
is getting taken away.
I'm the last man standing."
How can you even
handle that stress
and still be happy?
Not everything is so
basic and black and white,
especially when you see
terrible things happen
to good people around you.
You know what I'm saying?
I think French
realized that, too.
[Karim] My brother
locked up first.
Chinx had just died.
Max B got 75 years.
I was in the worst
place you could be at.
And you just there,
and people want
you to make music.
You just sunk into this sand
that just keeps sinking
you in even more and more.
Like, it's up to your neck now.
At any moment, you're
ready to explode.
I was at the moment
when I realized,
"Oh, this is how
people k*ll theyself.
This is how people lose it."
Then I just went to Uganda.
["Unforgettable"
instrumental plays]
I met these kids.
The Triplets Ghetto Kids.
I watch a lot of African music.
And these kids, their
moves is not the same moves
I see on the Internet
and the Gram every day.
I never seen nobody
dance like that.
I'm like, "Why are they
dancing like that?"
They was like, "'Cause
we don't have a TV
and nobody to learn from."
I can't even take, like,
my eyes off the screen.
The power of music and art
and the places that
it can take you.
When I went, the whole point
of it was just going there
and just seeing
how people living,
people that have no
access to phones.
Like, there was just
no medical care.
Like, people have less access
to 10% of what we have,
less material things,
less everything.
But happier than me.
They smiling like they
was French Montana
and I was living in Uganda.
It just showed me that if
you're not rich in heart,
you'll never be rich.
There's no medicine
that could've healed me
better than that.
I went there and came back
with the biggest
record in my career.
A f*ck' good time
never hurt nobody
"Unforgettable" was
more than just a song.
It was a movement.
I knew that record was
gonna be bigger than me.
You know, not being
able to make music
for like a year or two,
people sleeping on me,
then I just come with
the biggest bazooka.
On your level, too
Tryna do what lovers do
Feelin' like I'm
fresh out, Boosie
If they want the
drama, got the U*i
Ship the whole crew
to the cruise ship
Doin' sh*t you don't
even see in movies
It's not good enough for me
Since I've been
with you, ooh
I'm gonna sip on this
drink when I'm f*cked up
I sure know how to pick 'em
"Unforgettable."
"Unforgettable."
- "Unforgettable."
- "Unforgettable."
That video just broke
over half a billion,
600 million views.
President Obama likes that song.
He put it on his playlist.
So, shout-out to Obama.
"Unforgettable," it helped
take kids from Uganda,
brought them here to
experience the world,
all on visas.
I took kids that
I see on YouTube
to the biggest
stages in the world.
So many blessings.
And, like, it just helped
heal a lot of things,
you know, so that was the
experience of a lifetime.
H-here's a little story
about a kid from Morocco
H-had to show Carlito
I was Benny Blanco
Check it out,
r-raindrop, offset
f*ck a plug, we the outlet
[woman] There goes your boy.
I'm in the box office
All the rocks made
shorty blow my socks off
Coke boy white, Mac
Miller, Reggie Miller
sh**t to k*ll-uh, canaries,
quarterback, Steelers
White villa from...
Being successful, having money,
uh, being able to provide,
having people depend on you
is an extremely thankless
position to be in.
Very rarely do you get the
same energy reciprocated
because you've been chosen
by some higher power
to be a provider.
You know, you have
to make a decision.
Are you just gonna
shut everybody out?
Or are you gonna try and
pour out as much positivity
in the world that you can,
no matter what you receive back?
[Karim] A lot of
people use Africa,
but they never give
back to Africa.
And I was kind of tired of that.
So I wanted to go there
and make an example
that whoever go
there, give back.
People need action.
People need to
see things happen,
not people just lying to them,
and "Unforgettable" was a
song that took me to Africa
to build a hospital to save
so many lives for 56 villages.
[cheering]
Hi, French. It's Nyla. I
just wanted to show you
what you've been
able to help build.
This is the staff quarters
where all of the doctors
and nurses and health workers
are gonna be able to live.
What we have happening
here is the extension
that wasn't built two weeks ago.
And soon it will look just
like the staff quarters,
and it will be plastered,
and it will have a roof
in the next two weeks.
And then the services here
will be able to
reach 286,000 people.
And so I just wanted you to
know how much it means to me
that you decided to come
to this beautiful community
and bring healthcare
to all of these people.
This is honestly one
of my favorite stories,
because you said,
"I'm going to help build
up this medical facility."
And then The Weeknd was like,
"Oh, I'm also gonna
drop 100 grand on this."
And I was like, "Is
this gonna be the new,
like, thing in hip-hop
where it's like guys
are gonna be bragging...
instead of bottles
in the club...
I got a hospital in Africa
A hospital in
Africa I got a...
You could make it a thing.
- You could make it a thing.
- [Karim] Yeah, I hope so.
I hope so.
[conversing in Arabic]
[car beeping]
[Zack] Alrighty.
[emotive music playing]
Hi. How are you?
Shh!
Shh!
[indistinct conversations]
[dog barking]
[insects chirring]
[indistinct conversations]
[knocks on door]
[down-tempo emotive music plays]
[all cheering]
[emotive music continues]
[indistinct conversations]
[women singing in Arabic]
[cheering, ululation]
[Karim] I don't know who was
more proud, me or my mother.
I think that to see my
mother's whole energy shift
and she's busting through
my room with her chest up,
and happy and dancing,
and just to see
her in that spirit,
it's something I
always dreamed about.
Even throughout
all the obstacles,
even taking chances where
I could have got deported.
Even situations where my mother
could have took that
chance and went back home,
my father, when he
said, "I'm going back."
And just the way things
happened is unreal.
[all] Happy birthday...
[Karim] There's a story
for a lot of
immigrants out there.
You sacrifice.
You know, some people
have to sacrifice,
to better theirself, to
better their family...
to create a new generation
for their family.
[rhythmic thumping]
[emotive music playing]
I never had the energy
to hold on to grudges.
When I seen him,
the only thought that
was in my heart was...
"Are you proud of me?"
Yeah.
There was a line that I said.
I said, "I take
a look at my son.
Then I picture my father the
way he looked at his son.
Then I understood his story."
I still love my father like
I loved him before he left.
He left. It made
me French Montana.
Even when he did
wrong, he did right.
["Famous" plays]
[Zack] If I had the
all-star team right now,
you'd be down 30 points.
No, you'd be down 50.
[music continues playing]
I hope no one falls
in love with you
I've got my reasons
'Cause if they
knew what I know
Then I know I wouldn't
stand a chance
There's no way you would
go for a man like me
If you had options
Even though the world
was meant for you
I hope you don't get famous
'Cause everyone
will love you
But won't love
you like I do
Hope you don't get famous
Hope you don't get famous
Stay home with me
I'll always love you
I'll always...
Hope you don't get, hope
you don't get famous
Hope you don't get famous
Hope you don't get famous
Hope you don't get famous
Yeah
Baby, live your life...
French Montana has been named
the most streamed
African-born artist,
amassing more than 40
billion digital spins.
...with the angels
I said fake it
till you make it
I guess you fake
when you make it
I told you stick
to the basics
Built an empire, started
from the basement
'Cause if you trying to
fix a glass that's broken
You know it might cut ya
Never want to see
you with another man
Truth might eat you
if you mumble it
When it get too
cold for a blanket
Need you huggin' me
'Cause nobody gonna
love you like I do
Even though the world
was meant for you
I hope you don't get famous
'Cause everyone
will love you
- But won't love you...
- [song fades]
["One More Chance" playing]
Rough time, bissy,
bissy Don't cry
Hold me down when they
talk Make a smile with me
Hold me down when they
talk Make a smile with me
One more chance
All I need is
one more chance
Just save me
Need is one more chance
One more chance, yeah
One more chance
All I need is
one more chance
Just save me
Need is one more chance
One more chance, yeah
Anything that a Yahweh
Send it back to the sender
To the sender
Yeah, I was lost in
the world many nights
I remember
Many days I wasn't
livin' right
Beat the charge up
for my blessings
When I walk, I
shine so bright
[song fades out]
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French Montana Story, The : For Khadija (2023)
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