French Montana won the rap game. He signed to a major label, he scored a few hit singles ("Pop That", "Freaks", "Ain’t Worried About Nothin") and released his debut album, Excuse My French*,* on the strength of said singles. Since the record's release, though, French’s name attracted greater attention for dating Khloé Kardashian than any music he’s put out. Casino Life 2: Brown Bag Legend, his first solo project since Excuse My French*,* appears to show that life's been good since we last heard from him.
The Morocco-born and South Bronx-raised rapper has never shied away from sharing the spotlight on a given song, which was often to Excuse My French's detriment. Casino Life 2 takes new stylistic turns with each new guest appearance, most of which reveal French’s overlooked rapping versatility. The monolithically dark sound that gained him attention beyond New York City a few years ago with "Choppa Choppa Down" is still heard on the lumbering "Hard Work" and "Body Numb Full of Drugs", but the soulful opener "Hang On (Intro)" and closer "To Each His Own (Outro)" offer a new perspective with a more inward turn, a welcome respite from the rest of the tape’s tiring drug-lord myth building.
Still, the clichéd subject matter is where French Montana sounds the most comfortable, as he raps about enjoying the spoils of life. He name drops label-boss Diddy numerous times and there's a Diddy-like top-of-the-world giddiness on "I Ain’t Gonna Lie" and "5 Mo". It doesn’t hurt that the latter track is produced by trap mastermind TM88 and features young hotshots Travi$ Scott and Lil Durk, so French can rap "Fall asleep in the East/ Wake me up on the West" knowing the rest of the talent can pilot the track. That intoxicating aesthetic holds up Casino Life 2 so that "Moses", an ingenious pairing of Chris Brown and Migos, can sit on the same tape as a classic smoked out Curren$y track ("In the Sun"). The ability to weave between such varied styles holds everything together, even when weighed down by mediocre features from the likes of Rick Ross and will.i.am.
A little more than a week after the tape was released, French’s longtime partner and frequent collaborator Chinx was shot dead in Queens, New York. Casino Life 2 was released a week before his untimely death, but when Chinx appears on "Off the Rip", the triumphant turns solemn. The weight of what happened to Chinx hangs over the tape, but by the time it ends French's overriding joy is impossible to ignore.
