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[entrancing musical flourish]

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[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 war ♪

♪ 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.

Shit 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 shit is like gladiator school.

You either prey, or you're a predator.

There's just no way around that.

So if you see a motherfucker come up from the Bronx,

he's a ill nigga.

'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 gunshots, 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 fuck 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 ass.

- 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 shit.

But I guess after he found about his status,

that shit just killed him.

[Karim] That shit 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 nigga 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 kill 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 fuck we got to sling,

whether it's guns, 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 shit I can't afford.

Start doing shit that's not in my character.

But we was just living so reckless.

Like, I had a gun 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 niggas I seen

that put a pistol in the roof of the car, the hood,

tying a shoelace to a gun, 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 fuck? Let's go.

Let's go, baby. Come on, Gunna, let's go.

[man] Go, nigga. It's now or never, nigga.

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 shit was everything.

Niggas talking shit.

"Yo, you want to put up some?"

Like, "Yeah, I would put up some."

"You want to put up some?"

Before you know it, shit,

$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 shit.

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 killers and drug dealers

and niggas from the block,

and everybody got to be looking at you

- and feeling you. - If you lost, you lost.

Look at the nigga, 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, motherfucker ♪

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 shit.

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 shit come on when it want.

When they came to my door,

it was like four people in the hallways.

But everybody had big-ass 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 fuckery 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, shit, 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 gun,

he just yelling out, "Shoot him. Shoot 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 shoot him in the face.

When I go to try to shoot him, the gun 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 bullet 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 shit,

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 niggas is stalking you.

You feel like you got some stalkers on your back?

I heard niggas bombing on you,

stealing on you, all type of dumb shit.

You gotta be cool, be easy

when you're making DVDs, man.

Understand some people take that shit personal.

[laughs]

[Smack] Trying to tell you,

I used to do the DVD shit. 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.

Shit 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 shit 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 shit fascinated me.

That shit was dope. I was like, "Oh, shit."

Got a computer, got a camera, FireWire.

You know what I mean? And import my shit.

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 shit 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 shit is crack." So we was like,

"Our shit 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 shit was poppin'.

It had everybody on there. Shea Davis and all that shit.

You remember that shit? It had everybody on there.

[overlapping chatter]

Cocaine City, that was our shit.

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 shit 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 fucking get that? You ain't get that?

That's the studio right there. That's that nigga's car.

Get the police. Get how many police is out here.

[man] Oh, you want to get even with me?

Literally had war with people

over certain shit we put on a DVD.

Niggas go get that DVD,

see who getting they chain snatched,

who getting robbed, who getting beat up,

shit like that.

Niggas 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 illegal shit, 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-ass shit,

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, nigga.

Max Biggavel.

♪ Yeah, it gotta be the life ♪

♪ The life ♪

♪ We for real, dawg we will kill y'all ♪

♪ Shoot you up and cut you, fucking with us ♪

[indistinct chatter]

[song fades]

[birds chirping]

[indistinct chatter]

[Max B] I be doing crazy shit, cheating on my women

and just dramatic bullshit.

You hear all that shit in my music.

"He's a fucking degenerate, that Max B.

But, boy, do he motherfucking write them songs."

When they say shit like that about you,

I don't give a fuck, I don't care.

"Oh, boy, oh, boy,

that motherfucker Max drunk, drunk, degenerate, horny.

Damn, that motherfucker rich as hell.

He's a rich, talented motherfucker, though."

And when they finish with lines like that, who cares?

Who gives a fuck what they say? I don't give a fuck.

I think I met French in like '07.

I was doing my thing. He was doing his thing.

That was it. Once we started fucking 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 shit."

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 fucking 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 shit was up, your WorldStar shit,

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 fucking with us.

[Max B] You know how many times

we ran up on motherfuckers and gave that out?

Niggas was like, "This shit look official,"

and grabbed it 'cause it looked good?

Just 'cause the way French would package the shit.

[up-tempo hip-hop music plays]

Them niggas 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 shit,

you help that whole shit 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 Gang 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 nigga. Let's ride."

French's affiliation with Max B was...

It was a problem out here.

- A big one. - It was a problem.

Niggas lip-synching

and swagger jacking over there, baby.

Them niggas over there stealing songs,

swagger jacking and lip-synching.

Milli Vanilli-ass niggas.

Max B was having a situation with Jim Jones...

Jim, all them niggas 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-ass nigga. You just a bum-ass nigga.

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 shit like that,

some niggas don't give a fuck

too much about life.

Yeah. I'mma dust this shit off,

get this shit out the way, get this verdict,

and we gonna make history.

When shit 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

fucking 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 shoot a video outside the courthouse,

and I'd be like, "You're bugging."

His lawyers doing interviews.

I see y'all niggas 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, motherfuckers used to clown me

'cause, you know, I was just skinny,

goofy fucking 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 shit."

And I was like, "Nah, man.

I'm the Harrison Fraud of this shit,

'cause I ain't like all these other motherfuckers."

I was working, doing beats for different rappers,

and, you know, just playing my shit 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 nigga, 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, nigga." 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 nigga.

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, "Fuck out of here."

He kept playing the shit 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 shit 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 shit,

man, when Biggie used to play me his album.

Ain't nobody fucking 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, "Fuck 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 shoot 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 fuck 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 shit.

[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 nigga wanna touch me, haan ♪

♪ I ain't worried about nothin' ♪

♪ Nigga, 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 motherfucker,

he a party-motherfucker 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 shit.

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 nigga Chinx.

Coke Boys in your motherfucking 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, shit, 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 nigga, 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 shit 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.

Motherfucking 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,

murdered 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 niggas had the best relationship.

They did everything together.

That was like his right hand.

Went everywhere together, tours and shit.

While I was in prison, they was doing everything.

And for French, man, that shit just--

it killed his spirit.

You just wake up, and people tell you Chinx died.

Dropped the phone. Just...

cried, like...

Feel like somebody ripped your fucking 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 kill 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 fuckin' 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 Uzi ♪

♪ Ship the whole crew to the cruise ship ♪

♪ Doin' shit 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 fucked 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 ♪

♪ Fuck 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 ♪

♪ Shoot to kill-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]