Rapper, French Montana returned to his native home, Morrocco, Africa this week to reunite with his father. Fader.com took a trip with the Stay Schemin rapper to document the experience and contrary to what we see in the ‘Pop That’, ‘Shot Caller’ videos Montana was vulnerable at times during his visit.
French, who’s real name is Karim Kharbouch migrated to the United States when he was just 13 years-old. But shortly after settling in, Montana was abandoned by his father and as result he was forced to raise himself in the cold streets of New York City. In 2002 French teamed up with a close friend and ventured into the DVD business [which was a million-dollar business back then]; starting his very own Cocaine DVD series [which consisted of mostly of hip hop artists and street hustlers who were coming up/and or coming back in the game] and his success piloted from there.
Soon thereafter, French took an interest in ryhming and by the release of his fourth volume DVD series he was seen rhyming over sampled beats and spitting “funny raps” and needless to say French popularity grew enormously. Already having buzz in NYC, French drew a huge following in Connecticut state and in the southern region, and was well on his way to a record deal. After his deal with Akon fell through, French caught the attention of Sean “Diddy” Combs last year and his music career has taken off like a G4 since.
As French gears up to release his first studio album “Excuse My French” this fall, French paid a visit to his former homeland to mend fences with his dad [who returned home just two years after coming to the states]. French visits a few family members [uncles, cousins, etc] his grandmother’s grave site, and by the trips end he decided it was time to visit his father. The union was described as “bitter sweet” and necessary especially for French’s younger brother, Ayoub [who was meeting his father for the first time]
With the help of his uncle, French was able to track down his father at a local convenient store in Casablanca [where French’s father lives ]and to French and his brother’s surprise his father had a plethora of pictures of them on his walls of from their upbringing. The meeting reportedly went well and brought closure to for French. After speaking privately with his father French provided his father with “stack of hundreds” that was coiled in rubber bands.
Having build anew relationship with his father and distant relatives [which was also awkward for them as well] French plans to be in contact with is family from here on out.
“I remember me as a kid, just being raised around people in a third world country and not having the oppor-tunity to become what I became today.” French says. “It’s so crazy how I ended up in the States and made it happen.”
I love grass roots moments like these. It’s good to artists outside their “industry” character. Now when is the album dropping?