French Montana blames lack of security for Pop Smoke’s death

When it comes to keeping a tight circle for safety’s sake, French Montana is leaving no room for chance. The rapper was a recent guest on “The Breakfast Club,” where he spoke about Hip Hop’s fallen soldiers and the downfall of being too accessible to those with ill intent.

He began by speaking about how the death of Nipsey Hussle curtailed his own plans to buy back the block. “All he was trying to do was just change his neighborhood, and just bring some great things back, and try to buy his block. I feel like watching that scared me away from trying to do the same thing,” he said. Hussle passed away at the age of 33 after he was fatally shot while standing outside of his retail shop, The Marathon Clothing Store, in his neighborhood of Crenshaw in 2019. “Why come back and do that when I’m just seeing everybody around me just falling to it?” asked Montana.

He half-jokingly said that he instead chose to move out west to Calabasas, California. Though originally from Morocco, the "Hard Life" artist immigrated with his family to New York as a teen. He would further speak about the importance of individuals, especially celebrities, making security a top priority.

“At the end of the day… they always come from the inside, you know what I’m saying? You just gotta be careful how, you know, how you let people get in contact with you and touch you. You can’t just be easily touched and [easy] to get in contact with… Anybody can pull up on you and do anything to you. You gotta be able to be like a hawk on top of the mountain [and] just watch your prey. Whenever you want something, just go handle your business and dip.”

When Charlamagne Tha God noted that Pop Smoke was also in the Los Angeles area when he was gunned down in 2020, Montana reiterated that he has no real concerns about a security breach in his neighborhood.

“At the end of the day, Pop had no security. Pop had a gun on him. Pop had the wrong people around him,” he said before revealing, “I was supposed to meet up with Pop that night. He had a party at his crib… He sent everybody the address for the party.”

The 20-year-old died during a home invasion after he inadvertently shared his address on social media.

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