On Tuesday (Feb. 23), French Montana stopped by the Breakfast Club and dished on a few topics, including his new mixtape Wave Gods, working with Kanye West and incarcerated rapper Max B. He also discussed Kendrick Lamar and his belief that the music industry is using the Compton rhymer to eliminate street rap.
The discussion began when Charlamagne asked French about the “Why isn’t street rap selling like Kendrick?” line on the Wave Gods intro. He initially dodged the question, but Charlamagne pressed for an answer again later in the interview, to which he responded, “Because they position [Kendrick], like how they did at the Grammys, as the new music. I don’t feel like that’s… It’s not that it’s not the right thing to do, but I just feel like they… You see like the whole thing was like Kendrick night.”
During the conversation, Angela Yee asked if the New York rapper felt the marketing was making Lamar the new face of hip-hop. “Yeah,” French said. “They put him on that platform so they could shift music towards that direction.”
This year, Kendrick Lamar led the Grammy nominations with 11 nods. He was up for awards including Album of the Year for To Pimp A Butterfly and Song of the Year for "Alright." He also received nominations for Pop Duo/Group Performance for "Bad Blood" with Taylor Swift and Dance Recording "Never Catch Me" with Flying Lotus.
He won Best Rap Song and Best Rap Performance for "Alright" as well as Best Rap Album for TPAB. The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 last March.
As previously reported, TPAB album sales are up a whopping 411 percent since the Grammys.
