French Montana and Iggy Azaela have come under fire for animal cruelty. The couple faced criticism across social media after French had a elephant wearing jewelry attend his birthday celebration.

"I love animals more than people!!" French wrote in the caption of a photo featuring him and the elephant. "Happy b-day to me. Positive vibes at the Casa."

French and Iggy's pictures of the elephant provoked accusations of animal cruelty in the comments of their respective Instagram posts. French would fire back at the criticism on Twitter, where he got fed up with one of his detractors.

"Shut yo ass up that elephant was a surprise for my bday in my yard when I walked out and was from the zoo and people that take care of it," French tweeted.

French never expected he'd get an elephant as a birthday gift when he was a child in Morocco. The rapper spoke to XXL about his unlikely ascent in our first digital cover story.

"Coming from Morocco, being the first artist to ever make it in this hip-hop culture as big as I did, it’s more than a blessing,” he said. “Sometimes when I go back to Morocco and I look at where I come from, I tell myself only god, only Allah could’ve helped you get where you at, you know? The last thing you expect to be doing is rapping. Then me coming here when I was 13 years old, not knowing no type of English, just having to learn the language first, learning the culture, shift around it. Then starting to rap, then getting into the industry, then getting into the bullshit of the industry."

In addition to French's birthday, the "Lockjaw" rapper also celebrated the release of his MC4 album. The release did not go exactly how he planned, but the music is finally in the hands of the fans.

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