Let French Montana Be a Lesson: Don’t Start Sh*t on Social Media
There are times in life when one must check a bitch. In the age of social media, when people from all walks of life share can anonymously say something slick to a stranger, those times have become far more common—especially if you’re a celebrity. It happens so often that the Shade Room has an ongoing series on its Instagram account highlighting celebrity-themed clapbacks. I tend to laugh like hell at them. People can be so vile and those types deserve to reap what they sow, be it a Rihanna-style dragging or a Tina Lawson, classic Black mama dressing down.
Still, there’s something that needs to be said to those celebrities who actively look for trouble: find something better to do with your time.
That life hack would certainly benefit French Montana, who last week lashed out at a Twitter user by calling her a “musty crusty dusty rusty ass hoe” before inviting the user to “take your cum drinking Dick banging ass somewhere n be humble.” Let’s dissect exactly how much French Montana fucked up here. For one, as someone who does not identify as Black, where does he get off using “nappy” as a pejorative? French has since shared that he didn’t know “‘nappy’ was a “racist word”—but he also thinks “everybody should say ‘nigga.’” In other words, he surrounds himself with Black people who refuse to tell him that being the Ashanti of hip-hop does not, in fact, make him Black.
— French Montana (@FrencHMonTanA) April 6, 2017
Beyond his inflammatory public display of idiocy, though, is the overall problem: the person he attacked did not directly address him. She did not include his Twitter handle, which means French went out of his way by searching his own name. Many celebrities do this and then lash out at anyone criticizing them. This has happened so many times, and in every single instance I hear Joseline Hernandez asking, “Ho, why is you here?”
I think people enjoy the Shade Room’s clapback series (and similar segments) because it’s famous folks replying to rude-ass people who jump into their Instagram comments to say dumb shit. In those cases, the clapback often comes across as warranted. Famous people are still people, so they have every right to directly respond to people directly entering their space to be disrespectful (or just flat-out wrong).
However, in the case of French Montana and other name-searching-on-social media stars, there’s a stench of the pathetic. The reality is, anyone who maintains any form of notoriety will be subject to criticism. The inconvenient truth is that it is largely unavoidable unless you avoid social media altogether. So, if you are aware that people will criticize you and may even insult you, why chase that sort of attention? Why give people who don’t like you that much attention—especially if they didn’t even aim their contempt at you directly?
But this is a perfect example of even when u defending yourself and minding your Business social media would drag your name thru the mud ‼️
— French Montana (@FrencHMonTanA) April 6, 2017
French Montana could have easily spent his Twitter time engaging with his fans. You know, the people who spend their time trying to reach him. Instead, he made himself look like a jackass. He dragged himself in ways the person he was responding to never could have.
Mariah Carey once said, “Ain’t gon’ feed ya, I’mma let ya starve.” Some folks refuse to acknowledge that Mimi had bars and dragged Eminem up and down Eight Mile, but we should all agree that this is sound advice on how to deal with those who can’t stand your ass. In the future, more stars should take note of what happened with French and learn to look the hell away. Granted, that’s unlikely for select stars, but they ought to know that the likelihood of them looking stupid is extremely high.
So, beloved celebrities, look to Mariah, not French Montana.
