French Montana

Morocco-born rapper French Montana is known for topping both the charts and the tabloids with his hit singles and palling around with the Kardashian clan. The media-savvy star-known for his sleepy drawl and blunt rap style-was a radio constant who spun his personal story of leaving Morocco into the modern American dream. In 2012, the Bronx-representing rapper broke out with his Top 40 hit "Pop That," featuring Lil Wayne, Rick Ross, and Drake and popularized the phrase "fanute." The music video amassed over 44 million views and established Montana as the next big rapper out of New York City.

Born Karim Kharbouch in Rabat, Morocco on November 9, 1984, Montana was raised on a family estate outside Casablanca, where he lived until 1996 when he left Morocco with his parents and younger brother Zack for South Bronx in New York City. While fluent in French and Arabic, Montana spoke only a small bit of English when he arrived at the age of 13, but he quickly picked up on the language and the Bronx culture though his infatuation with hip-hop.

Despite having left Morocco for greater opportunities, the Bronx was not the land of milk and honey as expected. Just two years after immigrating to the states, Karim's father returned to Morocco and left his family behind. His mother soon gave birth to another son, and Karim became the breadwinner while his family struggled to make ends meet on welfare. The self-proclaimed "Coke Boy" never shied from his roots and like many of his ilk, profited off his hard-knock life.

But Montana didn't transition from hustling to the music industry unscathed and has the scars from a bullet-wound to prove it. Montana broke into the industry during the early 2000s when street DVDs were king and became grassroots video royalty with his Cocaine City series. Between 2002 and 2011, he produced 14 DVDs under the name Young French that featured interviews with major artists and were interspersed with his own music. The series served as his gateway and business card into the rap world, connecting him to big name artists.

Eventually, his decade of mixtape and street DVD grinding finally led to a record deal with Akon's Konvict Muzik label in 2009. Fed up with numerous album delays, Montana left the label two years later and faced an intense bidding war between several labels including Def Jam, Warner Bros. and Kanye West's G.O.O.D. Music. Eventually, Montana sided with Sean "Diddy" Combs and signed a joint venture recording deal with Maybach Music Group and Bad Boy Records in 2011.

Before signing with Diddy, Montana had a few radio hits with "Shot Caller" in 2011 and other mixtape hits, but his first studio album, Excuse My French, brought him into the upper echelon of hip-hop. 2012 was the defining year for Montana, who was featured on XXL Magazine's Freshman Class cover and went on to drop his debut album in 2013. Since then, the rapper popped off singles and collaborations at an astonishing pace, including his appearance on Chris Brown's Billboard-topping hit "Loyal," and the single off his sophomore album, "Don't Panic," which featured his girlfriend at the time, reality star Khloe Kardashian.

Despite their short-lived relationship, the two both benefited from the subsequent publicity; it led to Montana's guest appearance on the hit reality show "Keeping up with the Kardashians" (E! 2007-) in the summer of 2014.