With his much-delayed-but-finally-on-the-way album MC4 dropping August 19th, French Montana — and his pet monkey, Julius — are on the cover of XXL’s debut digital issue.
In the sit-down with the Coke Boys rapper, French talks the album’s creation, maintaining a sense of positivity after facing the loss of his friend Chinx. The rapper also reveals a more socially responsible side as well, waxing some poignant poetics about the recent string of murders of Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, and various cops in Dallas and Baton Rouge:
“With all the stuff going on with police and this and that, the system was built for us not to, not to sound harsh, but not to make it out. I feel like there’s always a stereotype of us, which they not wrong because when they listen to the records they think that’s really us and they don’t know it’s just the art. We rapping about the life we used to live. And there’s always the stereotype with us. But what about the people who are not like rappers? The people out here doing the right thing and just have bad timing. People gotta stand up. You gotta stand up. But I also feel like threatening police on social media is not the right thing to do. ‘Cause you just gonna get a nervous cop who’s scared for his life that’s just gonna keep firing. And they have all rights to [do that]. Then we talkin’ about killing them and stuff like that then when they see us what do you expect them to do, you know?”
While people are rightfully angry when police kill another innocent Black man, French believes unity on both sides will be the catalyst for change. “I feel like there has to be a bridge built and the people have to build that bridge,” the Coke Wave creator declares. “All of us together. That’s a decision that all of us have to get to. The same thing Snoop is doing. The same thing all these role models taking the stage should do. Using their platform to build a bridge between us. Just ’cause [there’s] one rotten apple doesn’t make the whole bucket’s rotten. Just take that rotten apple out and build things better. One rotten apple spoils the batch? You can’t do that. Not every police [officer] is like that.”
Read the entire article here.
