Al Pacino credits hip-hop with making 'Scarface' a hit: 'They got it. They embraced it.'

“Scarface the movie did more to me than Scarface the Rapper.”

That's what Jay-Z rapped towards the end of “Ignorant S—” featuring Philly's Beanie Sigel from the 2007 album American gangster.

During an appearance at Marc Maron's WTF podcast to plug his new memoir Sonny Boylegendary actor Al Pacino has spoken about how audiences helped turn his 1932 remake of the same name into a cultural phenomenon after initially being panned by critics and Hollywood insiders. Pacino's co-star Stephen Bauer, who played Manolo, said director Martin Scorsese once warned them of the possible response when the film premiered. “At the premiere, Martin Scorsese turned around in the middle of the movie and said, 'You're great, but be prepared, because they're going to hate it in Hollywood.' That's what he told me and he didn't know me from Adam. “And I said, 'Why?' He said, 'Because it's for them.'

“I was surprised that he had that reaction,” Pacino said after admitting that he had lost interest in acting at the time. “The public liked it. Take a while.” Adding, “Hip-hop just figured it out. They got it. Rappers embraced it. And then the next thing you know, the VHS comes out and more people are seeing it. Plus we're on the records, these rappers. And then he just carried and kept going and going.”

Directed by Brian De Palma and starring Al Pacino in a role that reinvigorated his already storied career, Scarface has been a favorite of the hip-hop community 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 sentiment was depicted in 2002's Paid in Full, the film loosely based on the lives of Harlem kingpins Rich Porter, AZ Faison and Alpo Martinez, as they also rose from scratch to become three of the most influential drug dealers in American pop culture.