French Montana recently chopped it up with DJ Akademiks.
During the chat, French suggested labels would rather have their rappers dead because they get paid that way.
[Instagram post not found]“That's when I realized, too much beefing. We was beefing for real," Frnech explained. People was dying and this and that, and it was blocking a lot of money. People didn’t want to touch you. You know what I'm saying. Your rap friends stop picking up, the labels stop picking up. It gets crazy. But now it’s even crazier because they getting life insurance on artists. At least back then, we didn’t have that."
Ak said that he heard that, too. And he asked French if that means the labels aren't signing rappers in good faith.
"No, You’re praying on his death," French argued. "You’re praying on making millions on his death.”
French did acknowledge that the labels were being "realistic".
"You’re supposed to have life insurance anyway, but when the label does it, if you don’t have one that’s crazy."
But between the life insurance and the well-established fact that a dead rapper will get a huge sales bump it does seem like there is an incentive for labels to go out and find rappers who may get themselves killed.