''Excuse My French'' is the debut studio album by Moroccan-American rapper

French Montana Karim Kharbouch (Moroccan Arabic, Arabic: IPA pronunciation, æɾiːm χɑɾbuːʃ born November 9, 1984), better known by his stage name French Montana, is a Moroccan-American rapper. Born and raised in Morocco, he immigrated to New York ...

. It was released on May 21, 2013, by Coke Boys Records,

Bad Boy Records Bad Boy Entertainment, doing business as Bad Boy Records, is an American independent record label. The label was founded in 1993 by rapper and record producer Sean Combs. During the mid-1990s, the label signed hip-hop and contemporary R&B, R&B a ...

Maybach Music Group Maybach Music Group (; abbreviated MMG) is a record label founded by American rapper Rick Ross in 2008. An imprint of gamma. since 2023, the label was previously an imprint of Def Jam Recordings (2009–2011), Warner Records (2011–2012) and ...

and

Interscope Records Interscope Records is an American record label based in Santa Monica, California, owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M imprint. Founded in late 1990 by Jimmy Iovine and Ted Field as a $20 million joint venture ...

. The album features

guest appearance The term guest appearance generally denotes the appearance of a guest in an artistic or pop-culture setting. The guests themselves (referred to as guest artists, featured artists, guest stars, or guest fighters, depending on context), are disting ...

s from

Diddy Sean John Combs (born November 4, 1969), better known by his stage name Diddy, and formerly Puff Daddy and P. Diddy, is an American rapper, record producer, and record executive. Born in Harlem and raised in Mount Vernon, Combs worked as a ...

Nicki Minaj Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty (born December 8, 1982), known professionally as Nicki Minaj ( ), is a Trinidadian rapper, singer, and songwriter. Regarded as the "Queen of Rap" and one of the most influential rappers of all time, she is noted for her ...

Drake Drake may refer to: Animals and creatures * A male duck * Drake (mythology), a term related to and often synonymous with dragon People and fictional characters * Drake (surname), a list of people and fictional characters with the family ...

Ace Hood Antoine Franklin McColister (born May 11, 1988), known professionally Ace Hood, is an American rapper. Born in Port St. Lucie and raised in Deerfield Beach, Florida, he was discovered by DJ Khaled and became the first act to sign with his rec ...

Lil Wayne Dwayne Michael Carter Jr. (born September27, 1982), known professionally as Lil Wayne, is an American rapper. He is often regarded as one of the most influential hip hop artists of his generation, as well as one of the greatest rappers of all ...

, Birdman,

The Weeknd Abel Makkonen Tesfaye (; born February 16, 1990), known professionally as the Weeknd, is a Canadian singer-songwriter, record producer, and actor. He is best known for adding Pop music, pop, electronic music, electronic and hip-hop stylings ...

Rick Ross William Leonard Roberts II (born January 28, 1976), known professionally as Rick Ross, is an American rapper. An influential figure in modern Hip-hop, hip hop music, Rick Ross has become known for his "Wiktionary:booming, booming" vocal perfor ...

2 Chainz Tauheed K. Epps (born September 12, 1977), known professionally as 2 Chainz (formerly Tity Boi), is an American rapper and actor. Born and raised in College Park, Georgia, he gained recognition as one-half of the Southern hip-hop duo Playaz Ci ...

Max B Charley Wingate (born May 21, 1978), better known by his stage name Max B (short for Max Biggaveli), is an American rapper and singer. He is best known for his solo ''Public Domain'' and ''Million Dollar Baby'' series of mixtapes, and introduc ...

Ne-Yo Shaffer Chimere Smith (born October 18, 1979), known professionally as Ne-Yo ( ), is an American singer and songwriter. Regarded as a leading figure of Contemporary R&B#2000s, 2000s R&B music, he is the recipient of numerous accolades, includi ...

, Machine Gun Kelly,

Raekwon Corey Woods (born January 12, 1970), better known by his stage name Raekwon ( ), is an American rapper. He rose to prominence as a founding member of the hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan, which achieved mainstream success following the release of the ...

Scarface Scarface may refer to: Gangster-related * Scarface, nickname for Al Capone (1899–1947), an American gangster and a businessman. * ''Scarface'' (novel), a novel by Armitage Trail, loosely based on Capone's rise to power ** ''Scarface'' (1932 ...

and

Snoop Dogg Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr. ( ; born October 20, 1971), better known by his stage name Snoop Dogg (previously Snoop Doggy Dogg), is an American rapper, record producer, and actor. Rooted in West Coast hip-hop, he is widely regarded as one of t ...

, while the production was handled by

Mike Will Made It Michael Len Williams II (born March 23, 1989), known professionally as Mike Will Made It (often stylized as Mike WiLL Made-It) or simply Mike Will, is an American record producer. He is best known for producing trap beats for several Southern hi ...

Jahlil Beats Orlando Jahlil Tucker (born February 8, 1988), better known by his stage name Jahlil Beats, is an American hip hop record producer. He has produced for artists such as Lil Wayne, Fabolous, Meek Mill, Chris Brown, Tyga, Rick Ross, Ace Hood, Bobb ...

, Reefa,

Rico Love Richard Preston Butler Jr. (born December 3, 1982), better known by his stage name Rico Love, is an American record producer, singer, songwriter, and rapper. He was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, but split his childhood between Milwaukee, Wisco ...

Lex Luger Lawrence Wendell Pfohl (born June 2, 1958), better known by the ring name Lex Luger, is an American retired Professional wrestling, professional wrestler, bodybuilder, and gridiron football player. He is best known for his work with Jim Crocke ...

and

Young Chop Tyree Lamar Pittman (born November 14, 1993), better known by his stage name Young Chop, is an American record producer, rapper, and songwriter. He is best known for producing drill hip hop music, and for producing many of Chief Keef's early hit ...

. The album was supported by three

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

s: "

Pop That "Pop That" is a song by Moroccan-American rapper French Montana featuring Canadian rapper Drake (musician), Drake and fellow American rappers Rick Ross and Lil Wayne. Released as the lead single from the former's debut studio album ''Excuse My Fr ...

", " Freaks" and "

Ain't Worried About Nothin' "Ain't Worried About Nothin'" is a song by American rapper French Montana for his debut studio album '' Excuse My French'' (2013). It was released on April 15, 2013, as the third single from the album. The song was written and produced by Rico Lov ...

". ''Excuse My French'' garnered negative reviews from critics, finding criticism in Montana's technical delivery and the formulaic production throughout the record. The album debuted at number four on the US ''Billboard'' 200, selling 56,000 copies in its first week.

Background

French Montana revealed in a September 2012 interview with RapFix Live that he has worked with several fellow recording artists on the album, including

Wiz Khalifa Cameron Jibril Thomaz (born September 8, 1987), better known by his stage name Wiz Khalifa, is an American rapper, singer-songwriter and actor. Raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he signed with the local independent label Rostrum Records to re ...

Wale Wale or WALE may refer to: Places * Wale, Devon, a hamlet in England * Wale, Tomaszów Mazowiecki County, a village in Poland People * Wale (surname) *Wale (rapper), stage name of American rapper Olubowale Victor Akintimehin Radio and televisi ...

Lana Del Rey Elizabeth Woolridge Grant (born June 21, 1985), known professionally as Lana Del Rey, is an American singer-songwriter. Lana Del Rey discography, Her music is noted for its melancholic exploration of Glamour (presentation), glamor and Romanc ...

M.I.A. Mia, Mía, MIA, or M.I.A. may refer to: Music Artists * M.I.A. (rapper) (born 1975), English rapper and singer * M.I.A. (American band), 1980s punk rock band from Orange County, California * MIA. (German band), a German rock/pop band formed in ...

, and

. Montana also stated that he had a song with R&B singer

, entitled "Gifted". In addition, on January 26, 2013, he revealed in an interview with Rap-Up TV that he had also worked with

Kanye West Ye ( ; born Kanye Omari West ; June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer and record producer. One of the most prominent figures in hip-hop, he is known for his varying musical style and polarizing cultural and political commentary. After ...

on the album. The album cover was released on January 29, 2013. In another January 2013 interview with Rap-Up he announced he had a song with Wiz Khalifa and

on the album and that producers on the album would include

, Harry Fraud and

. Also saying that the album would be the "album of the decade". The final track list would also reveal features from

DJ Khaled Khaled Mohammed Khaled (; born November 26, 1975), known professionally as DJ Khaled, is an American DJ and record producer. Originally a Miami-based radio personality, Khaled has since become known for enlisting high-profile music industry ar ...

, Mavado,

Jeremih Jeremy Phillip Felton (born July 17, 1987), known professionally as Jeremih ( ), is an American Contemporary R&B, R&B singer. He embarked on a musical career after meeting record producer Mick Schultz in 2008, and signed a recording contract wi ...

Fabolous John David Jackson (born November 18, 1977), known professionally as Fabolous, is an American rapper. Raised in Brooklyn, he first gained recognition for his ability upon performing live on DJ Clue's WQHT, Hot 97 radio show. Jackson then signed ...

Trey Songz Tremaine Aldon Neverson (born November 28, 1984), known professionally as Trey Songz, is an American Contemporary R&B, R&B singer and songwriter. After being discovered by record producer Troy Taylor (record producer), Troy Taylor in 2003, Songz ...

, Machine Gun Kelly,

Red Cafe Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–750 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondar ...

Chinx Drugz Lionel Du Fon Pickens (December 4, 1983 – May 17, 2015), professionally known as Chinx (formerly Chinx Drugz), was an American rapper. He was a member of The Rockaway Riot Squad alongside fellow slain rapper Stack Bundles. Chinx later joined Fr ...

, Johnny May Cash and Los. Max B performs the album's intro in a phone-in from jail with Mikey T The Movie Star During the promotional run for the album French told

Hot 97 WQHT (97.1 FM, ''Hot 97'') is a commercial radio station, licensed to New York, New York, which broadcasts an urban contemporary music format. The station is owned by Mediaco Holding, a subsidiary of the Standard General hedge fund. WQHT's st ...

that the only artist he paid to make an appearance on his album was Max B.

Release and promotion

The album was originally set for a July 17, 2012 release before being pushed back to fall 2012. On December 20, 2012, Montana revealed that the release date would be March 12, 2013. However, it was later postponed again to April 16, 2013, and once more until May 21, 2013. On November 19, 2012, Montana released a new mixtape, entitled '' Mac & Cheese 3''. The mixtape included appearances from Diddy, MGK,

Fat Joe Joseph Antonio Cartagena (born August 19, 1970), better known by his stage name Fat Joe, is an American rapper. He began recording as a member of Hip-hop, hip hop group D.I.T.C., Diggin' in the Crates Crew (D.I.T.C.) in 1992, and pursued a sol ...

, Wale,

Mac Miller Malcolm James McCormick (January 19, 1992 – September 7, 2018), known by the stage name Mac Miller, was an American rapper. He began his career in Pittsburgh's local hip hop music, hip hop scene in 2007, at the age of 15. In 2010, he signed ...

Curren$y Shante Scott Franklin (born April 4, 1981), better known by his stage name Currensy (stylized as Curren$y), is an American rapper. Born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, he signed with the local record labels Cash Money Records and Young Mo ...

, Rick Ross,

J. Cole Jermaine Lamarr Cole (born January 28, 1985) is an American rapper and record producer. Born in a military base in Germany and raised in Fayetteville, North Carolina, Cole initially gained attention as a rapper following the release of his d ...

Trina Katrina Laverne Kearse (née Taylor; born December 3, 1974), is an American rapper. She rose to prominence in the late 1990s for her collaborations with Trick Daddy on the singles " Nann Nigga", " Shut Up", and " Take It to da House". In 2000, ...

Prodigy Prodigy, Prodigies or The Prodigy may refer to: * Child prodigy, a child who produces meaningful output to the level of an adult expert performer ** Chess prodigy, a child who can beat experienced adult players at chess Arts, entertainment, and m ...

Tyga Micheal Ray StevensonMicheal Ray Stevenson

, and Ace Hood. In addition, the tape features production from Young Chop and Rico Love, among others. As of January 26, the mixtape has been downloaded more than 1 million times on mixtape hosting site

DatPiff DatPiff was an online audio distribution platform that was launched in 2005. It is headquartered in Pennsylvania. It specializes in hip-hop, rap, and urban music. The site was founded in the spring of 2005 by Marcus Frasier. It is owned by Me ...

. From February 26 to March 26, 2013, Montana embarked on the ''Excuse My French'' tour ahead of the album's official issuance. He later released 30 second snippets for every song on the record on May 12, 2013. In 2017, it was confirmed that

was originally an executive producer for the album.

Singles

The first official single released from ''Excuse My French'' was "

", which featured Rick Ross, Drake, and Lil Wayne, with production from

Lee on the Beats Anthony Leedel Norris (born February 11, 1990) is an American hip hop record producer and songwriter, professionally known as Lee on the Beats. Lee has produced for artists such as Lil Wayne, DJ Khaled, Kid Ink, Ace Hood, French Montana, Rick Ross ...

. The song was released on June 15, 2012, and peaked at 36 on the US ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100, also known as simply the Hot 100, is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), o ...

. On January 26, 2013, Montana announced that the next single would be released within the next week and is a remake of the song "Freaks", which originally appeared on the debut album of rapper Lil Vicious, ''

Destination Brooklyn ''Destination Brooklyn'' is the only studio album by American hip hop artist Vicious. It was released on November 1, 1994, through Epic Street/Sony Music Entertainment. Recording sessions took place at The Crib, Palm Tree Studios, House of Hits a ...

''. " Freaks" featuring Nicki Minaj was premiered on

on February 13, 2013, and released to iTunes the next day. On February 18, 2013, the music video was filmed for "Freaks". On March 7, 2013. the music video for "Freaks" featuring Nicki Minaj was released. On March 12, 2013, the single was released to Rhythm Crossover radio. The song "

" would be released as the third official single, for digital download on April 15, 2013. It is his first career solo single. A music video was filmed in late April and released on May 7, 2013. The first promotional single released off the album was titled "Marble Floors" featuring

and

was released on December 4, 2012. On June 19, 2013, the music video was released for "I Told Em". On September 9, 2013, the music video was released for "If I Die". On September 23, 2013, the music video was released for the Birdman and Rick Ross collaboration "Trap House". On October 15, 2013, the music video for "Gifted" featuring The Weeknd was released. On November 18, 2013, the music video was released for "Once in a While" featuring

. On January 20, 2014, the music video was released for "Paranoid" featuring Johnny May Cash.

Critical reception

''Excuse My French'' was met with generally negative reviews from

music critic '' The Oxford Companion to Music'' defines music criticism as "the intellectual activity of formulating judgments on the value and degree of excellence of individual works of music, or whole groups or genres". In this sense, it is a branch of m ...

s. At

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which assigns a

weighted mean The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an

average In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...

score of 54, based on 14 reviews, which indicates "mixed or average reviews". David Jeffries of

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

gave the album three stars out of five saying, "Montana is a flossy tycoon first and a wordsmith second at this point, so his handing in a high-power mixtape instead of a focused debut is to be expected, and with a little bottle service, enjoyed." Simon Vozick-Levinson of ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' gave the album two and a half stars out of five, saying "He’s a man of few words – many of his hooks consist of a single staccato phrase, looped until it verges on nonsense. When these mantras connect, they’re indelible. When they don’t, it’s like being smacked in the face repeatedly with an iced-out chain." Ian Cohen of

Pitchfork Media ''Pitchfork'' (formerly ''Pitchfork Media'') is an American online music magazine founded in 1996 by Ryan Schreiber in Minneapolis. It originally covered Alternative rock, alternative and independent music, and expanded to cover genres includin ...

gave the album a 3.5 out of 10, saying "Forcing French Montana into that #1 spot and having it come off like a transplant rejection actually lets us know the genre’s in fine health." Joven Haye of DJBooth gave the album three out of five stars, saying "Ultimately, Excuse My French was very predictable. If you were looking for music to ride around to this summer, then it is the perfect album. On the flip side, if you somewhat bought into French’s “10 year” comment, I can't believe you won't leave disappointed." Peter Marrack of ''

Exclaim! ''Exclaim!'' is a Canadian music and entertainment publisher based in Toronto, which features coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and emerging artists. The monthly ''Exclaim!'' print magazine publishes seven ...

'' gave the album a one out of ten, saying "Excuse My French is almost exclusively loud and aggressive, which has become the formula for this type of thing: programmed, repetitive hi-hats, 808s and a guest verse by Rick Ross. It's the kind of sweatshop beat-making mainstream producers have learned to accept as they cash their cheques. Lyrically, Montana does what any cat on the corner can do: talk slick." Bruce Smith of ''

HipHopDX ''HipHopDX'' is an online magazine of Hip hop music, hip hop music criticism and news. ''HipHopDX'' has over 3.5M monthly readers, the website encompassing hip hop news, interviews, music, and reviews. The website's founder and CEO is Sharath C ...

'' gave the album two and a half stars out of five, saying "Excuse My French comes off as extremely formulaic. While excessive tales of flossing, the streets, and misogyny are nothing new to Hip Hop, the complete lack of creativity those subjects are executed with on this project, whether it be lyrically or instrumentally, make it a hard listen." David Turner of ''

Spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spin (physics) or particle spin, a fundamental property of elementary particles * Spin quantum number, a number which defines the value of a particle's spin * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thr ...

'' gave the album a five out of ten, saying "French has a great, unique adlib ("Haaan"), an identifiable voice, and a face recognizable in a silhouette. But on Excuse My French, he's outshone and undervalued." Dan Buyanovsky of '' XXL'' gave the album an L, saying "There’s enough big boasts and big beats here to carry French’s charm, which is really all you could ask for with a debut LP from the Bad Boy."

Commercial performance

''Excuse My French'' debuted at number four on the US ''Billboard'' 200 chart, selling 56,000 copies in its first week. In its second week, the album dropped to number 18 on the chart, selling an additional 18,000 copies. In its third week, the album dropped to number 35 on the chart, selling 11,000 more copies. In its fourth week, the album dropped to number 55 on the chart, selling 8,400 more copies that week. As of October 2016, the album has sold 177,000 copies. On May 8, 2020, the album was certified

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

by the

Recording Industry Association of America The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

(RIAA) for combined sales and

album-equivalent unit The album-equivalent unit, or album equivalent, often shortened to just unit, is a sales metric in the music industry that defines the number of streaming media, songs streamed and music download, songs downloaded equal to one Record sales, tradi ...

s of over 500,000 units in the United States.

Track listing

Sample credits * "Once in a While" contains a sample of "Barry Bonds" performed by

featuring Lil Wayne. * "Fuck What Happens Tonight" contains a sample of "I Got Over Love" performed by Major Harris. * "Pop That" contains element and a recording sample of "I Wanna Rock" performed by

Uncle Luke Luther Roderick Campbell (born December 22, 1960), also known as Luke Skyywalker, Uncle Luke and simply Luke, is an American rapper, promoter, record executive, actor, and former leader of the rap group 2 Live Crew. He is known for having hel ...

. * "Freaks" contains a sample from "Freaks" performed by Lil Vicious and contains the lyrics of the song "Murder She Wrote". * "We Go Wherever We Want" contains interpolations of "Ice Cream" written by

RZA Robert Fitzgerald Diggs (born July 5, 1969), better known by his stage name RZA ( ) or the RZA, is an American rapper, record producer, composer, actor, and filmmaker. He is the '' de facto'' leader of the hip hop group Wu-Tang Clan, having pro ...

. * "Bust It Open" contains an interpolation of "I Wanna Rock" performed by Uncle Luke. * "Throw it in the Bag" contains a sample of "Steppin Up" performed by

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

{{Authority control Interscope Records albums 2013 debut albums Maybach Music Group albums Interscope Geffen A&M Records albums Bad Boy Records albums Albums produced by Sean Combs Albums produced by Mike Will Made It Albums produced by Rico Love Albums produced by Lex Luger French Montana albums Albums produced by Young Chop Albums produced by Harry Fraud Albums produced by Jahlil Beats Albums produced by Vinylz Albums produced by Allen Ritter