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

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.”

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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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