Al Pacino Credits Hip-Hop With Making ‘Scarface’ a Hit: ‘They Understood It. They Embraced It.’
“Scarface the movie did more than Scarface the rapper to me.”
That’s what Jay-Z rapped towards the end of “Ignorant S—” featuring Philly’s Beanie Sigel from his 2007 album American Gangster.
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During an appearance on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast to plug his new memoir Sonny Boy, the legendary actor Al Pacino talked about how the audience helped turn the remake of the 1932 film of the same name into a cultural phenomenon after it was initially panned by critics and Hollywood insiders. Pacino’s co-star Steven Bauer, who played Manolo, once said director Martin Scorsese warned them about the possible response during the movie’s premiere. “At the premiere Martin Scorsese turned around in the middle of the film, and he said, ‘You guys are great — but be prepared, because they’re going to hate it in Hollywood.’ He said that to me and he didn’t know me from Adam. “And I said, ‘Why?’ He said, ‘Because it’s about them.'”
“I was surprised that it had that reaction,” Pacino said after admitting that he had lost interest in acting at the time. “The audiences liked it. Took a while.” Adding, “Hip-hop just got it. They understood it. They embraced it, the rappers. And then the next thing you know, VHS is going out and more people are seeing it. Plus, we’re on the records, these rappers. And then it just carried and it kept going and going.”
Directed by Brian De Palma, and starring Al Pacino in a role that revitalized his already storied career, Scarface has been one of the hip-hop community’s favorite films since its release in 1983. Those from the inner city and marginalized communities saw themselves in Tony Montana’s rise to power as a Cuban immigrant during Miami’s cocaine glory days in the early ’80s. This feeling was depicted in 2002’s Paid in Full, the movie loosely based on the lives of Harlem kingpins Rich Porter, AZ Faison, and Alpo Martinez as they too rose from nothing to becoming three of the most influential drug dealers in American pop culture.
The scene shows Ace (played by Wood Harris) narrating as he’s in a packed movie theater during a showing of Scarface. “Things really got hot in Harlem when Scarface came to town,” he says as the audience around him cheers on Montana’s antics. “It’s like n—s love seeing a poor ass Cuban just blow up to be “the man,” all by himself.
Along with Brooklyn’s Jay-Z, Queens group Mobb Deep, Staten Island’s Wu-Tang Clan, and Texas’ Scarface all have famously sampled or referenced the movie in some form or another over the course of their respective careers.
You can check out the full convo here.
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