During a recent interview with XXL, Chicago native Lil Durk spoke about his recent signing to French Montana's "Coke Boys".  Even though Durk is closely associated with fellow Chicago native Chief Keef and his 300 squad, Durk decided to move in a direction to further identify himself as a rising solo artist.  He revealed that he and French Montana met through Twitter and that French serves as a big brother figure, and is helping him brand himself and make his music and name more well known to the general public nationwide.

"That's my homie, he's like a big brother to me. He talks to me every day, I call him every day and talk about everything music-wise.  Actually we was just politicking through Twitter, then I came up here to get some Slowbucks gear. I started working with Slowbucks, then they introduced me to him.

"He called me and motivated me. He told me, like, 'I'm not forcing you, but when you ready to move just holla at me.' The music and the stuff I'm doing is good, but sometimes you feel like you're at a standstill and you just need that representative. Like you got to get embraced by somebody, 'cause at the end of the day it's all about publicity. You're going to need it, I don't care who you are."

Durk also commented on growing up in Chicago and being surrounded by all the violence plaguing the city, leading him and Chief Keef to dub their hometown "Chiraq."

"People can relate to other people and how they living. I'm not talking about no jumping in Ferraris.  You know how Iraq is, so we just put it together. What's going on in Chicago is the same thing that's going on in Iraq.  I get a lot of respect and response with everything I do so I know that they watching, and if I wasn't important in Chicago, they wouldn't be watching.  I'm my own boss, I don't wait on anybody, so I decided to do me. Get my own money and live it up.

"Living there, I don't really see it from the outside looking in. But by me growing up in Chicago, I'm used to it. So it's violence, but for the outside looking in it's like, 'I'm not going there.' And I just ask, 'Why?' You know?"

Source: xxlmag.com