French Montana opened up about the effects of his battle with alcohol, pills, and overworking in a recent interview on Apple Music’s “Rap Life Radio” with Ebro Darden. The “Pop That” rapper spent nearly two weeks in the hospital in 2019 after consuming excessive prescription pills — to manage his exhaustion — and drinking alcohol. He spent most of 2020 exercising and using the gym as an outlet to get his mind and body in better shape.

After Darden asked French if he’s quit taking pills and drinking lean, French reiterated that he’s stopped “everything,” and won’t even have a glass of wine with friends. His decision to get sober, although it has been tough French revealed, came from his desire to keep up with his peers.

“Yeah, it’s hard. I’m going to celebrate, but right now, I just, I want to stay laser-sharp to focus on getting some things out the way,” he explained. “What I realize about people that be affected by those kind of things, sometime the train pass you and you don’t even realize it. You chasing the high instead of chasing that train that you should be on. You know what I mean?”

“I feel like I seen a lot of my peers that came from less fortunate places and accomplished so many things,” he continued. “I feel like I could have been … I’ve been seeing a lot of my peers that just surpassed me and I’m like, ‘Yo, how they doing it?’”

It took some time for French to realize that some of the artists he partied with weren’t actually drinking. “They act like they drinking with you,” French said. “Like how Akon used to be with the Shirley Temple acting drunk.” And I’d be like, ‘Yo, you don’t even drink.’ He’d be like, ‘Man, I got to act drunk with these people.’ I’m like, ‘Yo, I got to learn from that.’”

The 37-year-old Bronx-bred artist dropped his fourth studio album, They Got Amnesia, on Friday (Nov. 19). Although it debuted at No. 59 on the Billboard 200 albums chart — which is French’s lowest first-week chart placement — the “FWMGAB” emcee said: “This is the album I always wanted to make.”

“Why I say that is just, I was watching this artist. He was like 45 years old, and he was making this painting, and he made it in 15 minutes. But he charged homeboy $4 million for it. And, it was like, ‘Yo, why you charging me $4 million for this 15-minute painting?’ He was like, ‘It’s not about the 15 minutes. It’s the 45 years it took me to make this.’ You know what I’m saying? So that’s where I’m at in life,” French said. “It’s just about that laser-sharp vision. I know what I want. That’s how I want to do it. I don’t need nobody to come and bring no energy here. This is what it is.”

Check out the full interview below via Apple Music: