Grantland

fanute

Resize Font: A- A+

Q&A

French Montana Talks Basketball, Diddy, and Mink Sleeves

By Rembert Browne at
Johnny Nunez/WireImage/Getty Images

On the surface, rapper French Montana and his Bad Boy Records boss Diddy don't seem to have much in common. The former has a gritty exterior and discusses cocaine less as a drug and more as a lifestyle, while the latter has a habit of glistening and reminding us how he has all the money. One of the ways in which they are extremely similar, however, is their skill at the art of knowing everyone and being everywhere. Diddy has made a career of always finding his way on-camera, onto a remix, or to the right party. His protégé, young grasshopper Montana, is a quick learner — in the past six months, he's landed on the Drake-headlined Club Paradise Tour, and has become second only to 2Chainz as far as star-studded collaborations go, most notably the car-rattling, Vanessa Bryant–referencing anthem "Stay Schemin.'"

While landing a verse on that song was an accomplishment, perhaps more impressive is what French did on accident, that being the invention of a word. That word: "fanute." Due to a hard-to-decipher drawl, his opening lyric "From the hoopty coupe, to that Ghost dawwwg" was interpreted by a significant chunk of the listening population as "Fanute the coupe." Was "fanute" a word in 2011? No. Has it, somehow, taken on a life of its own, loosely defined as anything from "switch out" to "accumulate funds" to literally anything you want? Absolutely.

Top Stories

MOST POPULAR

  1. Richard Simmons, still sweatin' to oldies
  2. The brainless, semibrilliant 'Fast 6'
  3. Rating the lead singers of active bands in 2013
  4. From concussions to instant replays, WWE has started acting like the NFL
  5. The return of 'Arrested Development'