FILMS IN HIP HOP: Scarface

I had a huge realization while watching the film in class yesterday when they mentioned how movies can influence hip hop.  So much of hip hop is reinforced through movies.  There are countless references to films in rap songs.  Think about Goodfellas, Casino, or Scarface.  Scarface is actually known to be a film that every hustler or gangsta has favorited.  There actually is a famous rapper named Scarface! 

            In The movie Scarface the main character, Tony Montana Is a Cuban Refugee, in his mid-twenties that goes to Miami in the early 1980’s.  He is ruthless, unemotional, but also somewhat dependable.  In the beginning he is sent to a refugee camp with his best friend, Manny.  Montana gets an opportunity to get green cards for he and his friends in exchange for killing a government official for a wealthy drug dealer.  He gets in with a drug dealer and begins to move up in the drug game and begins to get very greedy, wanting more and more money and he works hard to get it.  Montana gets more and more assertive as the film proceeds.

            Towards the end of the film an un-expected drug war breaks out and Montana one of his many machine guns and lights the man up.  In his cocaine-fueled rage he grabs an assault rifle with a grenade launcher attached to it to and multiple clips.  With confidence he impulsively he speaks to himself out loud, “You want to fuck with me, your fucking with the best…you want to fuck with me, okay.  You want to play games, come on.”  He then begins to scream through the front of his office door at the top of two staircases when about 15 men with machine guns running up to shoot Montana.  He yells, “You wanna play rough, okay.  Say hello to my little friend!  He then shoots out his door killing about 5 or 6 people with his grenade launcher.  He keeps walking forward and shooting everything he see’s while thinking that he is invincible although he gets shot a few times.  The shooting goes on for a bit, and he kills almost an entire army while screaming out, “You fuck with Tony, the you fuck with the best!  He then gets shot about twenty times in the chest while still standing until he finally get’s shot from the back, falling into his small pool in the front entrance.

            Tony Montana/Scarface is a role model for so many hip hop artists.  He represents masculinity, toughness, and violence.  Scarface is known for being hard and un-stoppable.  He is the type of guy who is never scared.  These are so many of the many main themes in hip hop.