This week, French Montana rolled out his new single “Famous” in grand fashion, with a performance on Jimmy Fallon’s The Tonight Show and the release of a beautifully cinematic, Lil X-directed visual.
“It was like back home, no place like home,” French told REVOLT TV on Tuesday (January 16) before rehearsing for his Fallon performance scheduled for the following night. “We shot it in Chefchaouen, the city where every house is blue. It’s called ‘The Pearl of Morocco.’ So everything was blue and it’s just a beautiful place for everybody to experience. Just being there seeing the Moroccan kids. We’re starting something there, too. We’re opening up a bunch of musical schools out there, too. We can’t just do Uganda and not help my country. So we’re gonna start helping the kids out there with musical vibes and stuff like that.”
“Famous” is all about keeping a special person close as French sings his selfish but loving reasons for why he hopes his lady doesn’t get too popular.
“I was just talking to Hov just now on text,” French said about JAY-Z. “I was asking him who should I get on the remix.”
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JAY-Z has been one of French’s biggest supporters in the industry and it was he who told the Morocco-born MC that “Famous” was French at his finest after hearing an early copy of Jungle Rules.
“Honestly…he told me to send him the album before it came out,” French explained. “And he said [‘Famous’] was his favorite record. He said, ‘I don’t wish for much, but if I wish for anything for this record, is for me to have it.’ I was like, wow. That’s dope coming from the G.O.A.T.”
If it wasn’t so late in the manufacturing and shipping process for Jungle Rules, Jigga may have gotten his wish.
“It was too late,” French said. “It was already on the album. But if it was asked for [earlier], yeah. You give, you get. Give blessing, you get blessings.”
When asked if he and JAY-Z will do a new song, French lets it be known that that is one of his own wishes.
“Hopefully. That’s one of my idols coming up in the game,” he said.
A few years back, JAY, along with Kanye West, was one of the heavy bidders looking to acquire French’s services for his record label. Ultimately, Diddy won out.
“I just think at that time I had a lot of options and I went [with] my guy, with Puff, and it worked out the best way,” French reflected. “Now I got the French Vanilla Ciroc, this, that. It worked out.”