French Montana

 French Montana started his career as a battle rapper during his teens under the name Young French. French Montana and Cams began a series titled Cocaine City in 2002. They were inspired by the Smack DVD series. The show featured interviews and performances by major and new rappers. In the beginning, as Young French, he used the DVDs to show a way to showcase his talents as an underground artist including in it his own original music, freestyles, as well as collaborations with fellow artists. Pee Wee Kirkland, Remy Ma and other artists were among the performers in the first volume in the series. The series was started to build an audience and grew quickly to become a well-known street DVD. It was on for eight years including 14 volumes as well as a variety of spinoff movies. French, an eminent Bronx native, ran the series with the assistance of his childhood pals Brock, DroopPop, and Cheeze. The incident culminated with French being shot to the head by two gunmen while leaving a Bronx recording studio. It was believed the shooting was caused by "friendly fire" between the attacker and another. French was admitted to hospital for several days before being released by French Montana on his debut mixtape French Revolution Vol. 1. It featured collaborations with Uncle Murda and Mazaradi Fox, Jae Millz, Mazaradi and Tony Yayo. The track "Quarter to Eight" was the first of many collaborations with Rick Ross. The J.Cardim-produced "Straight Cash" was French's first underground success. The rapper released Live From Africa the second mixtape of his in the year 2008. The track "Waavvy" was his first collaboration with rapper Max. Max