French Montana on Watching His Peers Surpass Him: 'I'm Like, 'Yo, How They Doing It?''

French Montana’s competitive nature played a big role in his decision to quit drinking.

The Moroccan-American rapper addressed the topic during a recent appearance on Ebro Darden’s Rap Life Radio show. French admitted it was difficult to give up alcohol, but said it was necessary to maintain focus and ultimately keep up with fellow artists.

“Yeah, it’s hard. I’m going to celebrate, but right now, I just, I want to stay laser-sharp to focus on getting some things out the way ...” he explained. “What I realize about people that be affected by those kind of things, sometime the train pass you and you don’t even realize it. You chasing the high instead of chasing that train that you should be on. You know what I mean?”

French told Darden he has seen many other artists “surpass” him, which prompted a series of internal questions related to his life choices.

“I feel like I seen a lot of my peers that came from less fortunate places and accomplished so many things,” he said. “I feel like I could have been … I’ve been seeing a lot of my peers that just surpassed me and I’m like, ‘Yo, how they doing it?’”

French said he was initially baffled by other artists who managed to achieve so much while partying hard—that is, until he realized some of these stars were putting on an act.

“Like, yo, they act like they drinking with you … Like how Akon used to be with the Shirley Temple acting drunk?” he said. “And I’d be like, ‘Yo, you don’t even drink.’ He’d like, ‘Man, I got to act drunk with these people.’ I like, ‘Yo, I got to learn from that.’”

Elsewhere in the interview, French spoke on the unwarranted criticism surrounding his catalog, working with the late Pop Smoke, his previous beef with Jim Jones, and his newly released project, They Got Amnesia.

“This is the album I always wanted to make,” he said. “You know what I’m saying? And why I say that is just I was watching this artist. He was like 45 years old, and he was making this painting, and he made it in 15 minutes. But he charged homeboy $4 million for it. And, it was like, ‘Yo, why you charging me $4 million for this 15-minute painting?’ He was like, ‘It’s not about the 15 minutes. It’s the 45 years it took me to make this.’ You know what I’m saying? So that’s where I’m at in life. It’s just about that laser sharp vision. I know what I want. That’s how I want to do it. I don’t need nobody to come and bring no energy here. This is what it is.”

You can watch the full interview above.