Some artists blur genres, but GRAMMY-nominated producer and recording artist French Montana blurs borders. His inimitable fusion of classic East Coast rhymes, wavy pop swagger, and international ambition elevated him to the forefront of the game on a global scale.
Karim Kharbouch was born November 9, 1984, better known by his stage name French Montana, is a Moroccan-American rapper. Born and raised in Morocco, Montana emigrated to the United States with his family when he was thirteen. He is the founder of Coke Boys Records and its predecessor Cocaine City Records. After years of independent material, he signed a joint-venture record deal with Puff Daddy’s Bad Boy Records and Rick Ross’s Maybach Music Group in 2012.
In 2013, he released his freshman platinum-certified album Excuse My French. He ascended to superstar status in 2017 with the blockbuster smash Unforgettable [feat. Swae Lee], which cemented him in the Billion Club for streaming and earned a Diamond certification from the RIAA, as the first African-born and first male artist from the South Bronx at the mecca of hip-hop to achieve this status.
Meanwhile, his sophomore effort, Jungle Rules, went certified platinum and dominated the charts, and his 2019 album Montana was immediately certified gold upon release. He closed 2020 with the release of the long-anticipated CB5 (Coke Boys 5) mixtape, continuing a legacy he started over a decade ago. In 2021, he took it to the next level with his latest studio effort They Got Amnesia.
In June 2022, Montana released his fifth studio and first independent album Montega, executive produced by longtime friend and legendary hip-hop producer Harry Fraud, bringing back Montana’s roots and original wave sound they’ve created. At the same time, he has left an indelible mark on communities around the globe.
In addition to becoming the very first rap ambassador of Global Citizen, he staunchly supported humanitarian efforts, spanning DACA, the viral Mama Hope #UNFORGETTABLE Dance Challenge, which raised over $500,000-plus, and his Pan-African health and education movement into Morocco with Care Morocco.
French Montana became a US citizen in 2018 after emigrating to the South Bronx from Morocco at just 13 years of age. This year, he launched a new joint-venture, NAQI Healthcare, an in-home and private accommodation detoxification services for clients in Florida, New York, Texas, and California in partnership with Guardian Recovery Network.
If anyone can not only change music, but the world at large, it’s French Montana. ●
