115 years ago, Ginger and Ale met at a mutual friend’s wedding in Toronto. One asked the other to a dance. And they still argue about who asked who, but the smart money is on Ms. Ginger. She was always the spice to their relationship. The two burgeoning lovebirds danced hand in hand, and as Mr. Ale watched Ms. Ginger fizzle and crack, he knew in his heart’s can-dle that he’d found the one. They were married with such speed, that the bubbles had barely popped. You could say the ink had barely Canada dried.
If the star-shielded lovers hadn’t met, multi-platinum artist French Montana’s mother wouldn’t have been able to stock her fridge with their progeny, her favorite soft drink. “Canada Dry was the one drink in our home. My mother’s a fanatic for it. She used to always give it to me with food. I fell in love with it as a kid,” Montana told me.
The butterfly effect is a powerful thing. Without Canada Dry ginger ale handed to him at every meal by his heavenly mother, Montana might not have felt the necessary nutrients or support or semi-random sequence of consequences we call living which inspired him to write “Unforgettable,” the song of his song he said pairs best with an ice cold can of Canada Dry. It’s pushing one and a half billion listens on Spotify.
Without his mother’s love materializing in part in spicy soda bubbles, Montana might not have found his most recent partnership, which he calls a “marriage.” Canada Dry and Montana teamed up for a viral video directed and musically produced respectively by longtime collaborators of Montana’s, brothers James Larese and Harry Fraud.
Larese added Canada Dry and Montana to his portfolio of music video subjects which already included The Weeknd, Saweetie, and Eminem.
Fraud’s numerous tracks with Curren$y, Wiz Khalifa, Benny the Butcher, and Playboi Carti have earned the producer over 2 and a half million monthly listeners on Spotify, a rarity for talent off the mic.
“I think every musician that I know has Canada dry in their house. You know it’s just classic. And that’s something everybody in my age group knows,” said Montana.
“Canada Dry, my favorite series, my massage chair: that’s like the VIP. I turn off my phone,” whimsied Montana describing his ideal night in. Creativity is fostered in the subconscious.
As he sits in his massage chair and binges Ozark, Montana’s creative mind is whirling with lyrics and beats. It might have been on such a night that the seeds of “Unforgettable” were sowed. And even if they weren’t, his next projects surely were.
I asked Montana what his superpower would be, if he were bitten by a radioactive can of Canada Dry. And he quickly and assuredly said it would be to “stay home for the rest of my life and everything comes to me. I don’t gotta go nowhere. Silk robe on and my slippers and everybody comes to work wherever I stay at.” And that’s what the whole campaign is about, being big comfy.
Montana’s connection to comfort was forged in the pandemic, where he found a new peace in his home. “I knew we was gonna end up going back outside for work anyway, but the comfort zone lasted,” Montana added.
“I’m in the greatest space in my life. I’m making the best music. I’m back to square one,” Montana said alluding to his next album. “I’m rapping like I don’t got nothing yet, like I ain’t accomplish nothing yet, which is a great space for me to be. I still feel that hunger. And that’s all I need to feel before moving into this next chapter, this next album.”
French Montana is hungry. But he isn’t thirsty.