![]() ![]() Now excuse me while I go listen to “Pop That.A rapper who built an indie empire with his Cocaine City imprint, French Montana was born Karim Kharbouch in Morocco but immigrated to the U.S. French Montana still has tricks up his sleeve too. Just like when the curtain was pulled and the great and powerful Oz was exposed as a fraud, he somehow still stumbled into success. And while E xcuse My French is littered with duds and moldy mixtape tracks, there are enough distractions around to keep the listener from totally tuning out. On the intro to “We Go Wherever We Want” Diddy yells “Time for the smoke and mirrors to come down!” No one with a morsel of good sense would claim that French Montana is a good rapper. He’s smarter than you give him credit for. It becomes HIS song but it’s on Montana’s album so Frenchie reaps the rewards. It warbles through the wailing guitars and and tinkling keys so effortlessly that you quickly tune out Montana. His familiar falsetto is literally tailor-made for the haunting production. Since when are urine-cut diamonds hot in the streets?īut as bad Montana’s lyrics are on “Gifted,” guest star The Weeknd totally steals the show. Dude attempts to rhyme the words California, Arizona, foreign and Taiwan on “When I Want.” When his most quotable line on the album is “it’s like pissing in the freezer tryna make canaries” on “Gifted,” you know we ain’t talking about Paid In Full-levels of lyrical excellence. Montana’s lyrics? Oh, they’re even worse. Meanwhile on “Marble Floors,” 2 Chainz has his “cup filled with pink, I’m supporting breast cancer.” I don’t know whether to laugh, be offended, or shake my head at the state of hip hop. Rick Ross shows up to do what he does best, talking about “cake cake cake cake” on “Trap House” and how he’s whipping work that smells like dinner rolls on “Marble Floors.” Dude needs gastric bypass surgery ASAP. It also shouldn’t surprise Frenchie fans that this album is LOADED with guests, most of whom seem to be on autopilot. Never heard his track “Bust It Open” before? Just repeat the phrase “Bust It Open” to yourself about 300 times and sprinkle few pronouns in there a couple of times. “I Told Em,” “Throw It In The Bag,” “Ain’t Worried About Nuthin,” they all sound like the conception and recording time took about 15 minutes. That’s the story for about half the tracks on Excuse My French – repetitive beats that will get the club turnt up paired with repetitive hooks that will, well, get the club turnt up. On the other end of the spectrum is “Freaks,” which conjures memories of Chaka Demus & Pliers’ “Murder She Wrote.” It might be club-friendly but creatively it’s pretty dull. It’s a solid track but would work much better without Ne-Yo crooning about his money. “We Go Wherever We Want” is a reworking of “Ice Cream” by Raekwon, who also shows up to wreck shop. Montana and DJ Khaled’s usual cast of goons don’t add much but Snoop DoggLion and especially Scarface administer corporal punishment on wax. “F*** What Happens Tonight” rides on Major Harris’ “I Got Over Love” (also borrowed by the Dipset and InterWebz champion freestyler Eli Porter). Make no mixtake, the concept is shallow and the lyrics are embarrassing, but it puts your eardrum in the figure-four leglock and refuses to let go.Įxcuse My French often tries ratcheting up the ratchetedness of classic beats, but the results are mixed. ![]() ![]() ![]() While “Shot Caller” inexplicably was left off the collection, “Pop That” is here in all its ignorant glory. Fast.īefore I start complaining, let’s look at what does work. “Shot Caller?” Yeah, that’s A Tribe Called Quest’s “Scenario.” “Pop That?” It’s just Uncle Luke’s “I Wanna Rock.” Their familiarity drew me in their catchiness had me hooked.Īfter an endless series of mixtapes and about 1,000 false starts, Montana is finally ready to take his magic to the masses with his solo debut.įunny thing about magic – once you’ve seen a trick a couple of times, it gets old. If you’re reading this blog, you probably know Frenchie’s lyrical talent is marginal at best and nonexistent at worst.īut with a little slight of hand, Montana was able to mask his shortcomings behind a sideshow of mesmerizing beats, all of which were the offspring of rap classics. In 2012 Puffy made me, the most critical rap fan in all of the World Wide Web’s seven seas, fall for his protege French Montana. Excuse My French (to be released May 21, 2013) ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |