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There’s a horrible perception out there that anyone could become a rapper and then become successful overnight. This, folks, is simply not true. The truth is, the rappers who want to reach the top have to grind for years before they get their shot.

Case in point: our boy French Montana.

BURY DA BEEF! 50 Cent Blasts French Montana On Twitter 

Even though he made his debut on XXL’s Freshman cover earlier this year, everyone’s favorite Coke Boy is no rookie. The kid has been in the game for years, building up his fan base.

VIDEO: Don’t Talk To French Montana About Style, He’ll Muthaf*ckin Embarrass You! 

And when we say years, we mean years — as in 10 joints. Yes, it’s been a long road for French Montana, who just came to this country from Africa in 1996. But it looks like it’s all about to pay off, with his MMG and Bad Boy-backed debut, Excuse My French, dropping later this year.

French has the streets on fire now and, you know what, he worked hard to get to this point. Scroll down below to see how far French has come over the years! 

Little Karim Kharbouch came to the Bronx, New York from Morocco in 1996. Karim was only 13 when he got to this country. His father wasn’t in the picture, so often growing up he was depended upon to provide for his mother and little brother.

As years went on, Karim picked up the name French from his boys on his block (the French colonized Morocco). A lot of trouble found French during his juvenile years, and before he entered the rap game, he was shot in the head. He also claimed to have beat a murder rap. 

French’s rap career began in 2002, when he started hosting a series of DVDs called Cocaine City. Hood DVDs were still big at this time and Cocaine City were the main competitors of Smacked DVD (which was running sh*t) and The Come Up DVD. French, or Young French, which is the name he used to go by, got his hood fame up by getting cameos from the hottest rappers in the streets at the time, from 50 Cent to Young Jeezy.

Cocaine City would run until 2010. One of the rappers featured on his DVD series was Max B. At this time, around 2008, Max B was beefing with his former boss Jim Jones (Max felt like he wasn’t being paid enough by Jimmy.) Max started building up a buzz and French hopped on the wave. The two had an epic bromance: they performed at 2008 Summer Jam together and they released numerous songs, ignorant Worldstar videos and mixtapes together (the Cokewave series they did is still very awesome). They also both came at Jim’s neck together, on song and in the streets, with numerous altercations. Their bromance would end in 2009 when Max was sentenced to 30 years in prison for robbery. 

Due to success of his Cokewave series with Max and his own solo tapes like Mac Wit Da Cheese, 2009: The Laundry Man 2 and Cocaine Konvicts: Gangsta Grillz, French was able to secure a label deal with Akon, who reportedly gave him a million dollar contract and a 2009 Maserati.

Things never worked out to the point where French Montana released an album under Akon’s label. However that didn’t stop French. In the summer of 2011, he released “Shot Caller,” one of the hottest songs of that year. At this point Diddy and Ross (who have their own little bromance thing going on) jumped on the wave and signed the rapper to a joint deal. This worked wonders for the rapper, who appeared on a number of bangers including the hottest song of 2012, “Stay Schemin.” 

After 10 years in the game, French Montana’s debut album, Excuse My French, will be released in stores, with the Rick Ross, Lil Wayne and Drake assisted “Pop That” appearing as the first single.

What a long journey it has been!