French Montana Wears His Immigrant Status on His Sleeve on GQ Covers Across Middle East

By Rachel Yang

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – French Montana appears across four covers for the November issue of GQ Middle East. The covers, shot in United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, and the rapper’s native Morocco, celebrate his heritage, multiculturalism and immigrants.

The covers aimed to promote peace in the Middle East, as well as Montana’s work supporting Dreamers as the face of the We Are the Dream Campaign . The initiative he began earlier this year with MTV and the nonprofit Get Schooled was launched to help undocumented high school students in the U.S. obtain higher education. President Donald Trump has been working on phasing out the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which offers protections to undocumented youth.

“Immigration means everything to me. It means hope, it means faith, it means a voice for the people that come from different places and build a country,” Montana tells the magazine (read the story here ).

The shoot was accompanied by a short film of Montana’s journey through Dubai, Beirut, and Casablanca.

“Being a kid from Morocco, from Casablanca, and going to the States when I was 13 not knowing English, and all we had was hope. Me being a Muslim kid and now I’m on the cover of Middle East,” Montana said in the video. “I feel like it’s something you can only dream about. Especially starting from the bottom with no help and being self-made and making it, it’s just something that shows the next world leader that comes from the Middle East that they can make it happen.”

The covers were shot by Sebastian Kim and creative directed by Jim Moore. Montana released his second studio album, “Jungle Rules,” in 2017. The album’s single, “Unforgettable,” featuring Swae Lee, was Montana’s first song as lead artist to reach the top 10 on the U.S. Billboard’s Hot 100. He also released the track “No Stylist” with Drake in September.