French Montana Praises 2Pac's "All Eyez On Me": "I Was Listening To That When I Didn’t Even Know English"

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LOS ANGELES, CA - DECEMBER 08: French Montana attends the GQ Men of the Year party at Chateau Marmont on December 8, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic)

French Montana says that "All Eyez On Me" was the first album he owned.

French Montana reflected on some of the greatest rappers of all time during an appearance on Rock The Bells Radio on SiriusXM on Sunday. While he spoke about Big Pun, Nas, and The Notorious B.I.G., it was 2Pac who left the biggest impact on Montana when he was still in Africa. In particular, Montana highlighted 2Pac’s “Ambitionz az a Ridah,” from his iconic All Eyez on Me album.

“I was listening to that when I didn’t even know English,” he shared with the radio station. “I was listening to it in Africa. It was the first album I ever bought. I felt his pain, his passion, I felt his comeback, and I didn’t even understand English. I felt it was that powerful, and it was that spiritual, and it was bigger than music. That’s when I felt that, you know, music is the only language that everybody speaks in the world.”

French Montana At iHeartRadio Music Awards

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - MAY 27: (EDITORIAL USE ONLY) French Montana speaks onstage at the 2021 iHeartRadio Music Awards at The Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, California, which was broadcast live on FOX on May 27, 2021. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for iHeartMedia)

Montana was born and raised in Morocco but immigrated to the United States with his family when he was 13. He recently announced that he'll be detailing his upbringing for a documentary with Drake serving as the executive producer. Speaking with Apple Music’s Ebro Darden last month for an episode of The Message, Montana spoke about the project further.

“Well, this documentary just tells my immigrant story basically, and all the people that followed me from the day that I started till now,” he said. “I feel like a lot of people know me, but a lot of people just know me by the music. A lot of people know me from me dating people. It could be this, it could be that, but I want people to know me for the right reasons and I feel like this documentary just is more based on the struggle. We was on welfare, to me getting shot, to me meeting Chinx, me meeting Max B. Max B be getting 75 years in jail. It’s the whole thing. It’s the whole enchilada. Me being almost blackballed after he went to jail. Me just going through all the obstacles.”

Read More: First Trailer For French Montana Documentary Released

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About The Author
Cole Blake is currently an Editor at HotNewHipHop based out of Brooklyn, New York. He began working at the site as an intern back in 2018 while studying journalism at St. John’s University. In the time since, he’s graduated with a bachelor's degree and written extensively about a wide range of topics including pop culture, film & television, politics, video games, sports, and much more. He’s also covered music festivals such as Gov. Ball and Rolling Loud. You can find him publishing work for HNHH from Monday to Wednesday or on weekends. On the sports front, Cole’s a passionate NBA and NFL fan with his favorite teams being the Indianapolis Colts and Los Angeles Lakers. He also roots for the Yankees whenever he finds himself at Yankee Stadium or the Red Storm when in the company of other SJU alumni. His favorite hip-hop artists are billy woods, Earl Sweatshirt, Cam’ron, MIKE, and Mach-Hommy.