After last week’s hype announcement, regarding a collab project between Fetty Wap & French Montana, The wait is over!  Coke Zoo has arrived and we’re diggin the sound so far! The mixtape consists of 13 tracks, featuring production from New Jersey’s RGF, with guest appearances from P Diddy, Chris Brown, Lil Durk and of course Remy Boyz’ Monty and Nitt Da Gritt.

Stream Coke Zoo below and feel free to share your thoughts with us!

The post Fetty Wap & French Montana Present “Coke Zoo” The Mixtape (Stream & Download) appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Coke Boy French Montana takes his shot at remixing ‘Bad Bitch‘. In addition to Jeremih, Fabolous and Rick Ross lend a verse to the uptempo club track. The track originally surfaced back in December as a teaser from Montana’s Mac & Cheese : The Appetizer project. Stream below.

The post New Music: French Montana – “Bad Bitch” (Remix) appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

French Montana hops on the latest hood anthem by Jersey rapper Fetty Wap, “Trap Queen.” Exclusively debuted on The Funkmaster Flex show last night, French lends a verse for the official remix to the infectious track which is quickly becoming a smash. Take a listen to Montana’s remix below.

The post New Music: French Montana – “Trap Queen (Remix)” appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Photograph by Trevor Sage-El. You can see the rest of the photo-shoot by downloading our app: here

By Datwon Thomas

Easy, breezy. That’s the aura you get around one, Karim Kharbouch aka French Montana. The Bronx, NY raised but Moroccan born rap star is about as laid back as it gets. It’s an equally chill out day in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn for DJ Khaled’s video for “They Don’t Love You No More (Remix)”. With Khaled’s crew and the other featured artist, Remy Ma’s hair/make-up/styling/family/friends in attendance, French’s sizable entourage is in tow as well. His seems to be a carefree bunch. The collective rolls under the Coke Boys tag. It’s an take off of French’s long shuttered street DVD series Cocaine City, where he showcased rapper interviews, interspersed with his own music clips as well. Now with Cocaine City Records sitting well in partnership with his artist deal on Rick Ross’ Maybach Music AND Diddy aka Puff’s Bad Boy Records, there’s not much you can tell the money making machine named Montana. Especially since his debut album, 2013’s Excuse My French, spawned the hits “Pop Dat” and “Ain’t Worried Bout Nuttin’”, the frequent feature artist is a mainstay on the collab train…just check his two songs on Jennifer Lopez’s new album, JLo.

Focusing his efforts on releases from his own team in Chicago’s wild cowboy, Lil’ Durk and Far Rockaway, New York’s Chinx, French isn’t phased by the recent rumor mill concerning a certain Kardashian he knows intimately. Still on set, the CBs talk amongst themselves, cracking inside jokes and wait for the director to start the action. Once the clip is done, the close friends roundup and try to figure out where the next spot is to turn up for real: “Hey Chinx, you want to pop some bottles?” says Boss Montana. Before the understudy can respond in full, French announces to all by their rides, “We going to La Marina!” It’s a summertime Sunday in NY, where else would they be going? Haaaan!

New project time, what’s the deal with that energy for the new album? Seems like you are flying around a lot for it, especially to LA.

Yeah, I’m back and forth. Name of the album is Mac With The Cheese. Dropping 4th quarter, like Black Friday or right after. “Don’t Panic” just came out. Working on Lil Durk album, on Chinx album. We got [producer] Harry Fraud, he’s the executive producer on the album.

How’s the approach to this album verses the last?

I just want to do what I was doing as far like the Mac N’ Cheese [mixtape] series. For my fans, my core audience. I feel like when I did the last album, even though it was a classic album, it was my first album. I wanted to touch like everybody. I wanted to do a song for him, a song for him. This one I just want to do what I know how to do.

You seem to have fun on records. It almost sounds like you’re smiling when you rap.

I mean that’s the mood I’m in all the time. It be times when you are going through things in life and you just want to put them out through the music. [But] for the most part, I love making music happy. I love going in there with positive energy.

It’s rare that we see you down or even upset. Like when there were things going down with you and 50, you even kept that light hearted. He’s aggressive to every rapper, it was kind of your turn and you were still upbeat about it.

Definitely, definitely. It’s like a sport. Sometimes you gotta take care of things like you know how. At the end of the day, it all comes down to the music at the same time.

You were a businessman, with selling your Cocaine City DVDs, before you got into the music full time. How did that experience help you when it came time for you to be an artist?

I learned about this game. Putting all the hours in and working on certain parts, but when I realized that the hustle meant 70%…the hustle is the most important part. That has to be in you. When I was coming up, just looking at Master P, looking at Jay, looking at all the entrepreneurs. Even Baby, even Puff, if you look at them it’s like they rap, but they got their business right before anything. That’s what motivated me coming into the game.

Everybody knew you from the DVD business. How hard was it to get them to know you from the music?

I mean, the whole point of me doing DVDs was to do the music. If you look at Cocaine City Vol. 1, I’m right in there right? Then Volumes 2, 3, 4, by the time 5 come on it was like, “Alright, French rapping.” I didn’t do it for no other reason but to get where I want. I had a plan from the start.

During that era, is that when you linked with now incarcerated rapper Max B or was it before that?

How we linked up…I think a friend of mine knew his family and he would tell me about him and this and that. So he was in the studio one day and ever since me and him met, we just clicked. It goes back to just him being happy in the studio. He a funny nigga. You’ll be with him and laugh all day, just coolin’. We just clicked. Started getting money or whatever. You’ve got to surround yourself with positive people sometimes. You don’t want no fuck boys sitting next to you all day. That’s why I click with most people, cus you got to be a positive dude. Like whatever come out your mouth, your energy and everything.

Akon was in your early career, then Diddy and Ross were fighting over who is going to put your album out. It’s rare for an artist that’s not necessarily considered lyrical, to have them fighting over you like that.

Honestly, if you look at from the beginning I used to be battling and doing all this shit. I used to really be into my pen game. After a while, you know how Hov said, “I dumbed down my flow to triple my salary”? [Ed. Note: It’s “I dumbed down for my audience to double my dollars.”] See my music is always a lifestyle. Like when you hear Rozay or when you hear, whoever it is that lives that kind of lifestyle and they rap about it. That’s the kind of rap I grew up loving. If you really listen to BIG and really listen to Pac, they never really was saying nothing too crazy, but the swag and lifestyle is what made them legends. If you play Biggie and you play Canibus, ain’t no way you gonna be like, “Biggie is killing Canibus.” Cuz that’s what Canibus do. He gonna tell you how big is the Sun, you know? All that crazy shit.

So you make more lifestyle music, by making joints that feel good rather than only sound like the lyrical miracle type shit.

Exactly. I wanted to be that nigga that niggas woke up and wanted to look like.  If you listen to some of these lyrical rappers now that are lyrical and this and that, you never hear anybody say, “I’m wearing this sweater cus this nigga wearing it.” [Laughs]. It’s only music. It stops there. It’s not like a lifestyle with it.

You’ve created a lifestyle with Coke Boys. How’d you come up with that?

I just took Cocaine City and flipped it to Coke Boys and get it as a label. Then put all my niggas on. Rap is just the stepping stool to everything else. Definitely want to spread your wings and get into whatever fits you. I definitely want to get into films. That’s my next thing. I always believed in visuals.

When did you know things were about to change? Was it when you were down with Akon or when “Pop Dat” got busy or when Mac N Cheese [mixtapes] rocked?

When I got my first check.

From the Coke Boys or the rap game?

The rap game, when I got my deal. I was like, “Ok, that’s all I needed.”

I know on the “Hot Nigga” freestyle you say, “Got my first mill’ started tweakin’”.

Ha, I did. When I got up with Puff and he gave me that million dollars, I looked back like, “I’ll see all you niggas later.” God damn it.

What’s the difference in lifestyle with that? You go from coach flights to private strips. It wasn’t always like that. Your Instagram shows the lifestyle.

It’s just growth. When you grind to the top and you come from nothing, no hand out, just build it up…that feeling is more than money. Of course the money makes it better but when you look around at everybody, “you can never make me.” All you can do is help me, help you. That feeling when you do it on your own is a whole other feeling. At the end of the day it’s like, once you elevate, every year you elevate. My thing is as long as I make $10 more than I made last year, I’m good. Ever since I started in the game I’ve gotten better and better every year.

Your associations have jumped up too though. It’s a wild time for you being in People Magazine and TMZ follows you after your relationship with Khloe Kardashian. That’s not rap level attention. What kind of level is that?

It’s just growth. Elevating. Next year is going to be bigger that last and [so on]. Since I dropped my album, that’s my first album, the world started knowing me. After that, everybody been asking me what I’m going to do with the next album. And everything else in between, you know people gossiping and want to know what’s going on in your life…you know, regular industry shit.

How have you dealt with it though. That’s kind of tough for somebody like you who’s been pretty private.

Mad niggas talked about me in the hood all day. I’m used to it. It goes from hood niggas, niggas on the block talking about you, to People Magazine talking about you. There’s no difference. I just keep it moving. I just make sure…you got to make sure your shit is like a motherfucking vault. You don’t let nothing from the outside get in. I mean look, ain’t nothing wrong with making a mistake. You ain’t a boss until you took a loss, but you got to learn how to move sharper. That’s why I keep people like Puff and Ross around me. If it really get crazy I just make that phone call. “Should I do this, should I do that…”, you know what I mean?

Check out the French Montana’s photo-shoot in the Respect Digital app: here.

And be on the look out for the conclusion to the interview shortly.

The post Interview: It Will Take A Nation Of Millions To Hold French Montana Back From Reaching His Proper Shine. appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

French Montana dropped his anticipated new single “Don’t Panic” produced by DJ Mustard. The track has been getting a lot of attention because of its video which we know two things about: it was inspired by the movie The Purge and it features Montana’s new girlfriend Khloe Kardashian. This is the lead single off his upcoming album Mac & Cheese 4 . Get into it below.

The post New Music: French Montana – “Don’t Panic” appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

It was a few months ago that Rick Ross dropped Rich Forever, and now he’s finally releasing the visuals for the French Montana collab track “Straight Off the Boat”. With French Montana‘s mixtape Mac and Cheese 3 dropping on November 9th, this is the perfect time for this street anthem to be dropped. Ross and Montana show off their boss skills while they conduct business deals on sick boats on tropical islands. Check out the video below.

The post New Video: French Montana & Rick Ross – “Straight Off The Boat” appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Photography by Loni Schick

RESPECT.‘s Peter Marrack recently caught up with French Montana during his stay in Toronto. French addresses Coke Boys branding, drug accusations, and one very special birthday cake.

Read the complete review & interview after the jump.

My ex Tamara and I were rolling through Yorkville in my dad’s Escalade when I came to the conclusion that some questions are better left unanswered, especially the question of Moroccan-born, Bronx-bred rapper French Montana. Montana is the popular dude behind a string of successful mixtapes, entitled Mac & Cheese 2, Coke Boys, Mr. 16: Casino Life, Coke Boys 2, Coke Boys Run NY, and Lock Out, on which he collaborated with Brick Squad phenom Waka Flocka Flame. Frenchy, as his fans call him, is somewhat of an enigma, in that his music and live performances arouse heated questions within the tight-knit hip-hop community, such as 1) Will Frenchy sign to Bad Boy, Maybach, or GOOD Music, or will he sign at all? 2) When will the ears of a Coke Boys’ concert-goer recover from French’s hard-hitting bass and thundering ad-libs? 3) How does French Montana make so much money, being a newcomer in the game? These are all questions I set out to answer during French’s brief stint on the Canadian concert tour, performing for the Toronto crowd this past weekend at the Kool Haus.

As of late, rumors have circulated that French Montana will sign to the GOOD Music imprint of Def Jam Recordings, while other sources speculate that the Mott Haven-native is more likely to sign with Maybach Music Group or Diddy’s Bad Boy. No matter where Frenchy ends up, one thing’s for damn certain. He’ll go where the money is. “I need more money,” demanded Frenchy over the phone, gazing out at the Toronto harbor from his room at the Westin Harbour Castle. It was Saturday evening, 24 hours after Frenchy’s sold out performance at the Kool Haus, and French was busy dismissing rumors that his performance had sparked two drive-by shootings which occurred after his show. “I don’t understand how that has anything to do with French Montana,” Frenchy complained, addressing a room full of his supporters, LoLa of iLuvLola, a dude named Fresh, the Spiff TV guy on Maybach’s payroll, and of course, yours truly. “Maybe you got them so revved up they went out and shot up the block,” joked Fresh, but French was already back on the phone (locking in a feature for fifteen grand) and couldn’t respond properly. “Naw,” was all he said. Now, all this may sound fine and dandy for a so-called ‘Coke Boy’ from the Bronx, however, if you paid close enough attention to my paragraph you would have noticed the bit about a media guru on Maybach’s payroll. Hell, I assume Rozay’s bankrolling the dude, as he adorned a Maybach Music chain up on-stage the night before… Regardless, what’s Ricky doing sending a photographer out to shoot Frenchy if he isn’t about to ink a deal with him? Logic tells us something’s probably in the works there.

Moving on to the show, LoLa of iLuvLola has to put on the most commendable, if not best, hip-hop events in all of Toronto, and French Montana was no exception. First of all, rumor has it that LoLa is hooked up with the same high-powered Canadian attorney who coerced customs officials to let Lil Wayne into the country (for three hours) to perform at Drake’s OVO Fest. She negotiated a similar deal with Frenchy, making up for the Waka fiasco a couple of weeks prior. LoLa also managed to convince Kool Haus security to look the other way when it came to blatant smoking violations, as concert-goers toked freely for the entirety of the performance, even during the opening acts when the floor wasn’t so packed. Hell, I’ve never witnessed so much weed being smoked in public as I have in Toronto over the past couple months. The city is beginning to act like a mini Amsterdam, spurning French Montana to remark, “I may even buy a house here”. The only downfall of the show had to have been the extreme sound levels they had the speakers jacked up to. My right ear is still ringing from Frenchy’s coke-slanging anthem, “Move That Cane” featuring Waka Flocka, 48 hours later. It didn’t help that the Coke Boys’ DJ insisted on treating the show like an extension of Frenchy’s mixtapes, unleashing violent gunshots and Coke Boys ad-libs every couple of seconds, to the utmost discomfort of my Vestibular nerve. In terms of the set, French ran through some of his more recognizable mixtape records, including “New York Minute”, as he swaggered around stage between an usually-cumbersome pack of supporters, including fellow Coke Boys, dressed in various leathers, designer belts, and sparkling diamonds, and a few too many caramel honeys done up like Drake’s pros from Club Paradise. The only odd moment was when French brought out Canadian artist Belly, who’s managed by LoLa [correction: LoLa does Belly’s online marketing], to perform the record, “Num8ers”, off his new mixtape, The Greatest Dream I Never Had. The feature appeared more like a business transaction, arranged by LoLa, than a gesture of mutual respect by French. But hell, who’s to blame a gal for taking care of business, right?

The only further (relevant) question pertaining to French, that I was able to squeeze in as we convened in his hotel room overlooking Toronto Harbour, Lake Ontario, and beyond that, Niagara Falls and Lewiston, had to do with his jewelry, the Mr. 16 pendant, his diamond studded ring, and a blinged-out bracelet. “I like your jewelry,” I said, seated across from French in a chair by the window. “Is that all from rap money?” “50/50,” he responded. “What’s the other 50?” “Construction,” said French, which drew a smirk from his fellow Coke Boys lounging around the beds. “Hmm,” I thought. “So the Coke Boys thing is not really a show, or a performance huh?” French looked at me sideways. “Are you asking whether I sell drugs?” I grinned, and said, “Well, not necessarily now, but in the past.” French made no comment. “Okay,” I regrouped, “Well, then can you tell us when you started in construction?” Another chuckle came from French’s camp around the room. “I can’t tell you about that either,” smirked French. “Maybe one day when I’m in a better mood I’ll tell you.” [read the complete interview below]

And that’s the exact story, word for word, I recounted to my ex, hours later, as we toured the ave’s of Yorkville in my dad’s Escalade, pumping A$AP Rocky’s new mixtape, Live. Love. A$AP. “I can’t believe I came out empty-handed,” I kept complaining to her, tugging at the wheel, when Tamara cut me off and said, “Wait a minute, maybe the questions are more interesting than the answers, right?” After all, French Montana is foremost a businessman, and it’s in a businessman’s best interests to stay elusive, even if that means putting on a ski mask and rocking out to “Chopper Down”, as Frenchy did in Toronto. I contemplated this idea some more, watching Tamara skim through the queue at Club V. Then I revved the engine and swept the Caddy back onto Avenue Rd., accelerating off into the night.

It was your birthday the other day, right?

Yeah, on the 9th.

Happy belated, man.

Thank you. Thank you, bro.

What did you guys do?

We had a stripclub party.

In New York?

Yeah, everybody came out for me.

Who was there?

Lloyd Banks, Flocka, Uncle Murda, I think Amber Rose. Mad people came out. Shout out to the whole city, DJ Clue. Everybody came out.

Did you receive any incredible gifts? Do you have anything left to wish for, at this point?

I mean, I got gifts, but the best gift I got was my birthday cake. It was nice. It was with the Pillsbury Doughboy on it. It was fly.

What kind of cake was it?

It was regular cake, but just the whole theory-

What is that? You guys keep talking about the theories.

Yeah, yeah, that’s Spiff’s dictionary.

Is that going to show up on the mixtapes?

Yeah, it’s already on the mixtapes.

Which one?

[speaking to Spiff of Spiff TV] He’s asking you about the theories.

Spiff: He wants to know about the theories?

Yeah.

Spiff: He can’t know about the theories yet. [laughs]

[laughs]

I listened to Coke Boys 2 again the other day. Did you record that while you were smoking? I have my own theory [laughs]-

[laughs]

If the artist records something high, I think it’d probably sound better high.

I was definitely high and drunk.

So I guess that’s why it sounds so good.

It sounds a lot better that way.

Yeah, “Yah Mean” is fucking incredible.

Crazy, right?

Yeah.

Thank you, bro.

Coke Boys 2 sounds almost like a movie, in the same way Reasonable Doubt sounds like a movie. You said Smack, the film, inspired you.

For the DVD, for the Cocaine City DVD. It was kind of doing the same thing.

Are you inspired by movies a lot?

Movies, yeah, all I do is watch movies. I love watching movies.

What have you watched lately?

Lately I’ve been watching Scarface. Scarface is funny to me. It’s action but it’s funny. It’s the accent and everything, the way he runs things, it’s funny to me.

Any recent movies?

I want to go see that new one, The Immortals, it dropped today. It looks cool.

The Immortals, yeah, my buddy wants to see that.

He said it’s good?

He doesn’t know, but he said it’s supposed to be sick.

Yeah, so I’m going to go see that tonight, but I love movies. I think movies can brighten up your mind about a lot of things.

Speaking of movies, I wondered how big of a role performance plays in your music. Obviously you’re going to assume the persona on-stage, but how much of it is you?

I feel like when you make music it’s like a movie, because you picture it. When you write something, you thinking about it being done. It’s like you’re doing it, like an action thing. Like yesterday when I performed “Chopper Down” with the ski mask on- were you there?

Yeah, I was there. My ears are still ringing.

Yeah, when I put the ski mask on and came out. That’s like a movie scene, bringing it closer to the song.

Was there a moment when you were coming up, when you thought, “Okay, I need to brand myself like this,” you know, create something out of yourself?

Yeah, that’s all I think about every day, how to brand myself.

Any more you can elaborate on that?

I mean, it’s branding, brand myself as like- I try to brand myself as far as making the same street music, but being separate. I don’t know if that makes sense. Like when they hear that sound they know it’s the Coke Boys. Like the beat could just drop, and they know it’s some Coke Boys shit.

Distancing yourself from the Lex Luger thing, kind of like that, but on your own.

Yeah, on my own, like see how Coke Boys 2, if you hear something off that, I want them to be like, “Damn, that’s Coke Boys 2”. It’s branding yourself. A beat could drop right now, and you could tell it’s a Dr. Dre beat, cause you brand yourself.

What producers are you working with to accomplish this? You work with Harry Fraud a lot, right?

Harry Fraud, yeah. He’s my brother. He’s my main producer.

How did you meet him?

I met him way back, a couple years ago. I met him through a mutual friend. I’ve just been building with him. I heard something in his music, so I said we’re going to make it happen.

And speaking of branding yourself, do you ever worry about losing touch with the kid who grew up in New York? I look at someone like Rick Ross and I think, who really is Rick Ross? Does anyone know?

[Spiff chimes in] We know who he is. We know who he is.

Yeah, yeah.

Spiff: His boys in his crew who’ve been with him know who he is.

That’s what is is, yeah, yeah. As long as you keep your immediate family with you, you going to keep making the same music. I don’t feel like Rick Ross’s music changed. I feel like it’s the same music. He just grew. He grew as an artist. But after a while the immediate people who grew up on your block not going to like you anyway. At the end of the day, you can’t go by their opinion. That happens with everything. You make it big in anything and there’s always going to be some dick riders, there’s going to be niggas who hate you, there’s going to be family, good people around you, that’s how it is, how the game goes. I don’t give a fuck if you play rugby.

I like all your jewelry.

Oh yeah, thank you.

And the chain you were wearing.

Oh, the Mr. 16?

Yeah, what is that?

It’s the Joe Montana jersey.

Ok. Ok. Ok.

Flocka gave me that idea.

And this is all from music money, the jewelry?

Huh?

All music money.

Half and half.

What’s the other half?

Construction.

Yeah, because I wondered-

[laughs]

Is Coke Boys part of the brand, or is there truth to that?

Are you asking do I sell drugs?

No, not anymore. But I don’t know. No disrespect.

Naw, man, we do music, sixteen songs, we do shows.

What about in the past?

No, I don’t know nothing about that. I just do music.

Okay, let me talk about the construction then.

Yeah.

Was that before your music?

Naw, I don’t know nothing about that. I just do music, my brother.

What about Waka?

Yeah, Waka’s my brother.

You ever party with those guys?

He’s the one who took me to the airport to come here. He’s my brother, man, we’re on the same label. We’re under the same management.

What about Gucci?

I don’t know. I can’t tell you if somebody’s crazy.

What can you tell me?

[laughs] You’re asking the wrong questions. You want me to talk about selling drugs, you want me to tell you Waka’s crazy. That’s negative shit. I don’t need any of that in my life. [laughs] I want you to talk about something positive, like we the hottest niggas in the streets, we about to get these M’s, you know, theories.

What Toronto artists do you like?

Um, Drake, Belly.

How long have you known Belly for?

Oh, for a little minute. I’ve known Belly for a while. I’ve seen him grinding. I’ve seen his work ethic.

You listen to the new project, The Greatest Dream I Never Had?

Yeah.

What stuck out that was different about that?

I like the first song on it, that “I’m Falling”.

I like the beats.

I like the production. Yeah, I like the production.

The post Concert Review & Exclusive Interview – French Montana @ Toronto appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.