Karin Kharbouch is a New York City-based rapper who operates under the pseudonym French Montana. After spending the first 13 years of his life in Morocco, he emigrated with his family to New York in the mid-1990s and began to integrate into the city's rich hip-hop community. Along with his friend Cokeboy Los, Montana released a series of mixtapes titled Cocaine City, under the name Young French, before dropping his first effort as French Montana in 2007. By the end of the decade, rumors were circulating about which label he would sign with, though he ultimately inked a deal with P. Diddy's Bad Boy Records in 2011 and released his debut full-length studio album Excuse My French, in 2013.
