While most may remember French Montana for his Cocaine City DVD/Mixtapes series or as the trusted sidekick to now incarcerated Harlem rapper Max B, the Bronx MC has managed to come into his own as an unlikely rap hitmaker.

With a steady supply of mixtapes and street bangers like “Choppa Choppa Down” featuring Waka Flocka, the Bronx rhyme slinger tells BET.com that he’s pleased with the current bidding war for his services.

“For the past two weeks all the offers been coming in,” French explains. “We’re just comparing all of them and trying to figure out what’s the best situation for me as far as money wise and marketing wise.”

Keeping a tight lid on the identity of his label suitors, the South Bronx native says he’s being courted by everybody.

“From artists to label execs,” the rapper says. “I’m just happy to be in this situation where I can control what I want to do. I really want to do it and make sure that I’m first priority wherever I go.”

French has a knack for self-preservation. In 2009, when his music cohort Max B was sentenced to 75 years in prison for his role in a fatal hotel robbery, many folks thought that would be the end of French Montana as well. Since then the lyrically-lite wordsmith signed a short-lived partnership with Akon’s Konvict Records and has worked with some of the rap games top names, from Gucci Mane, Rick Ross and Wiz Khalifa.

“When Max went down everybody thought they were going to stop hearing about me” French says. “At the end of the day I kept myself relevant with no label, nobody putting a battery in my back telling me to dance around. I just did it on my own 10 toes. I stood there and I made it happen, and I did it all off the love from the streets.”

Promising to make an official label affiliation announcement after or during the upcoming BET 2011 Hip Hop Award ceremonies in Atlanta, French assures fans that more surprises are in the works. With the success of his latest street smash “Shot Caller” French says fans can look forward to his almost complete debut, Please Excuse My French , which will include features Rick Ross, Max B and others.

Stay tuned for more.

(Photo: David Becker/WireImage)