French Montana spoke to TMZ about how he believes COVID-19 has affected rappers’ finances.
“Everybody is getting put to test about one thing and one thing only: Was you saving money while you was rapping?” French said. “Did you build a capital? Did you build something, like a retirement plan?”
The “Pop That” rapper says that throughout his career, he prepared himself for unforeseen circumstances, such as this current pandemic.
“Since I been working, I always would spend and I would save because I always dreamed about a beautiful exit one day and I always saved the money for a rainy day,” he explained. “But you don’t see things like this coming. So there’s a lot of artists that live check to check and there is gonna be a lot of garage auctions. I can tell you that.”
He isn’t the only rapper that has spoken out about how Coronavirus has impacted their bag. Earlier this month, Young Thug said the pandemic caused him to lose over $5 million due to canceled and postponed shows.
“It’s gonna cost me double, ‘cause I ain’t gonna be able to do the shows and then the money that I get for the shows,” Thugger said. “Let’s just say I get $500,000 if I don’t do these 10 shows nigga that’s God damn, that’s five [million]. But then, I don’t make 5 million till June, and then I might spend a million I might spend two million just on this quarantine shit.”
Several festivals and tours have been cancelled and postponed due to COVID-19. Live Nation has postponed all of their tours through June. Coachella has moved their popular festival from April to October. ESSENCE Fest, Something In The Water, Ultra Music Festival, SXSW and Rolling Loud Miami have been postponed until next year.
Check out the interview below.