French Montana tells Pvnew that before discovering the American dream as a hit rapper, he experienced “the American nightmare” as an immigrant in NYC.
“When they showed us the Empire State building — and all the buildings downtown — I thought we were going to live there. But when we came to the states we had to go to [the] Mott Haven projects,” in the Bronx, he recalled.
The 38-year-old, who immigrated from Morocco, became a US citizen in 2018. He premiered his new autobiographical documentary, “For Khadija,” at the Tribeca Festival.
“It was a whole different thing. It was a culture shock, it was jungle rules,” he said of his time growing up in the Bronx.
The film is follows his family, and his personal journey, as immigrants.
“I went through every level of struggle, every level of disrespect, every level of not understanding — and every step that was there I was there to take,” he told us. “Whether it was work or school, I just had to go through it.”
He said that as a kid, “Yeah of course I was made fun of. People would just stare at me, but man, I feel like the best teacher in life is failure. And I feel like when you come from the mud, and you have to learn everything from experience, I feel like there is no better teacher than that… I am one of those that learned from experiences.”
Diddy and Drake are executive producers of the film.
Guests at the premiere included Mayor Eric Adams, Busta Rhymes, Vin Diesel and Swae Lee, and the dance group, Ghetto Kids, performed.
