In many ways, French Montana’s sophomore LP Jungle Rules is a make or break album for the 32-year-old Morroco-born rap star. After a lot of build up, the album officially hit online streaming services this morning (July 14) at midnight.
His last album MC4 was set to become his proper sophomore follow-up to his Bad Boy Entertainment debut Excuse My French, which peaked at #4 on the Billboard 200 upon its 2013 release. Unfortunately, it instead became his twenty-first mixtape after it leaked as a result of a retail gaffe, leading it to become (commercially) shelved.
From a business perspective, that was a huge L to hold.
However, Twitter reactions to his new 18-song LP are proving that Jungle Rules, which is for all intents and purposes his second real album, is living up to the level of hype the smash-hit “Unforgettable” featuring Swae Lee — which went Platinum in the U.K today —has set.
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The project features a verse by Max B that is so clean; you’d think that Max was home and hiding out in French’s studio. The song “A Lie,” which also features The Weeknd,” has been teased for the last week or so with an official cover and video stills. It will, in fact, be the third single from the album.
The second single, the Organized Konfusion sampled single “Bring Dem Things,” brought back the ‘Skateboard P’ Pharrell that we haven’t heard since “Mr. Me Too.” He recently discussed the collaboration in an interview with Billboard.
“Sometimes it’s like somebody trying to get JAY-Z on his Reasonable Doubt vibe,” said French. “For somebody to tap back into their old sounds is kind of a blessing — to have Pharrell do that was even more of a blessing.”
With “Unforgettable” peaking at #10 on Billboard’s 100 Chart, and the video doing 160 million plus in views, this LP is guaranteed to do numbers. This is just the beginning of what will likely be a huge rest of the year for Frenchie, though, who hinted during an interview with MTV at a mixtape with Migos.
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Outside of music, the journey of making this album seemed to awaken a more philanthropic side to French, whose “Unforgettable Challenge” was was also a campaign dedicated to raising awareness of, and directly benefit the Mama Hope Organization, whose mission is to support global entrepreneurship as a path to ending extreme poverty. He hinted at a future charitable venture on Twitter after a recent trip to Morocco.
Were you feeling Jungle Rules? Let us know in the comments! Also, if you’re in the NYC area, you can catch French doing a meet-and-greet at the Billionaire Boys Club store in Soho.
