I think the godfather movies mean more to us then a movie about gangsters. To those of us that are italian, this movie means alot. It has the struggles of how our ancesters came to this country and struggled. What they had to do to survive. What real cosa nostra and men of honor were like. It has the struggles of how ancient sicilians had to stick together and form coscas to protect themselves from the forgien invaders that have plauged sicilia for centuries. It has many deep rooted traditions, and actions of many people in all of our families that we can relate too. The wedding scene and all the party scenes for example were like every family get together in my house.


WHY then

do all these rappers have to reference and compare themselves to the godather.

Nothing makes me more mad then all these rappers calling themselves the don, and referring to italian things, and calling themselves black sicilians and all that. ( im a fan of rap so i know alot of tis first hand )

I recently saw a special on mtv where all they did was interveiw black rappers and gangsters and talk about how it influenced them to hustle and sell drugs, and form gangs and all that kind of crap. It made my stomach turn and i hate every time i see this. And this has nothign to do with the movie in my opinion

The small minority of the Italian immigrants who came to America in the early 1900's, bringing with them some of their Sicilian traditions, and who formed the "American Mafia" so to speak, went on to "hustle and sell drugs, and form gangs....."

So why would it bother you that anyone else was influenced by them to do the same?

maybe i didnt expl;ain it the correct way. i just mean that ever reference to the godfather these days has to do with rap and things like that.

godfather equals rap these days. right now its on amc and they play rap songs and have machine guns in the commercials for it and a song about drugs and pimping by ice t.

why not have some itlalians and an interveiw about how this reminded you of what it was liek for your grandparents to immigrate to america. and some of those type traditions of the family nature instead of always focusing on the gangster portion of it

thats what always made the godfather so impressing to me, all the aspects of italian families

i dont see how drug dealers can say the godfather films influenced them as the family was very against drugs , that confuses me lol

It's really all about rappers creating images that sell their records. Some people who worship the "gansta" life seize on images of power, money, glamor, etc., that they associate with "the Mafia" to embellish their own self-images and add fantasy to their lives. The "Mafia" image they have has more to do with John Gotti, his Mercedes limos and his Brioni suits, than with Vito Corleone. The ultimate rapper hero is Al Pacino in "Scarface." He didn't have anything to do with rap, either, but his credo--"the world is yours"--is what they worship, along with the money, drugs, violence, etc.

I think blacks see a lot of similarities between Italian immigrants and themselves. They both had to struggle to survive throughout America's history. It's only natural that rappers reference the two best examples of this in cinema in their lyrics -- The Godfather and Scarface (I know Tony Montana was Cuban).

hmmm... but the people portrayed in GF are really intelligent... but the ones portrayed in rap songs are so.... um... dumb...

I was a fan of rap. A huge one. I am not anymore, but I think you are underestimating the intelligence of rappers. For one, they play to a common denominator a lot of times -- meaning that songs that are too cerebral, go over the heads of the intended audience. There have been some excellent "smart" rap songs, but most rap songs are simply intended as light weight entertainment, not trips into deep thought.

I'll agree that references to the GF and Scarface have become dated and cliche, but I'll stick to my theory of blacks having a lot in common with the characters in those movies.

While i can do without the rap music leading out and into the movie (it is, unfortunately like most rap music to this middle aged white man - loud and obnoxious) i have to agree in the similarities between the Italian and Black Cultures - and have wondered if a (pardon me while i cringe at hearing the music again) new version of the Godfather might be centered around a Black family?

(I chucked at the comments of these movies being important to those of Italian descent - i am half Italian, and can remember watching Godfather 1 with my Italian mother - and the two of us chuckling while saying "boy, i wonder if any of our relatives were in this movie?')

Well the rap music during the commercials was by Ice-T who at least is now more of an actor than a rapper -- and pretty harmless too. If it was by some dope like Luacris or 50 Cent, then I would have had a problem too.

I did find it strange the way AMC framed the films with those commercials... the GF trilogy is nothing like that. Sure it's got some violence in it, but it is more about just that.

Oh well.

The music bothers me, but what is more upsetting is the fact that AMC used to be commercial free, but that has long since ended. You can't watch anything on that channel anymore without 10 minutes of commercials interrupting the most important parts.

IMO, I think gansta rappers and the like associate themselves more with Scarface/Tony Montana rather than the Godfather movies.

Doesn't Ice-T play a cop on a prime time detective show now? --Sellout! lol

Ice T plays detective Finn Tutuola (spelling probably way off) on Law And Order:SVU

He's paying off his debt fot hi Cop Killer song...lol

Ice T plays detective Finn Tutuola (spelling probably way off) on Law And Order:SVU

He's paying off his debt fot hi Cop Killer song...lol

When it comes to the whole black rapper 'gangsta' thing, it definitely bugs the hell out of me too. I'm not racist or anything, but I don't like seeing a bunch of black guys rapping about pimping hos and all that shit associate with the Godfather.

There's more to the GF than just crime, and it's evident in the movies. There was class, there was honor, there was Italian pride and family orientation.

This has bugged me for a while. I have friends at school who can't see past certain generalizations so some of them figure that I am into the 'gangsta' genre since I'm known as a GF fanatic. In no way is it true. I am more old fashioned, and my parents make fun of me because they say I act and talk like an old man in several instances.

I guess this is the clash of street violence with cosa nostra. You've got gangs, those like you'll see in places throughout inner-cities, then you've got families which are displayed in the GF movies. These two have been clashed so that the 'gangsta' genre is smeared into the GF movies. That's why whenever I hear about gangsters like Don Corleone and Al Capone, both fake and real, being considered 'gangstas' with the black street pronunciation, I correct who ever missuses the term. There are two different concepts, gangstas who make their way of life by living a tough life on the street, often involving drugs and prostitution, then you've got gangsters, the actual wiseguys who make a name for themselves and see crime more than just something to rap about, these wiseguys have stuff organized, and have a strong hold over some areas, often having more influence over law enforcement and not being brought down as easily as these street gangs. You'll get more out of a famiglia than you'll ever receive from a street gang.

That's my take, they can have Scarface, that is a gang movie. However, just because Pacino acted in both (and did a great job in each), GF should never be so associated with SF, they are two different styles.

Actually, I think they take their cues more from Tony Montana than Vito Corleone but that's not the funniest part.

The funniest part is that, true story, there was this street gang in Detroit called the Coney Oneys. Everyone thought they were making a reference to Coney Islands, a staple of Motown junk food. But it turns out that one of the gang members was asked what it meant and he said something like, "from The Godfather, you know, Don Coney Oney."

I've had a problem with this for years. Rappers I think completely miss the whole meaning of the Godfather. Everytime I hear a rap song referance the Godfather, or Goodfellas I cringe. Not to mention Master P's "Da Last Don" crap. To be honest I think it's an intellegence thing. Not to sound racist or anything, but I think they find something intellegent like the Godfahter and try to make people think that they're like that instead of ignorant street thugs.

This is the funniest thing!

I understand what Pepino is saying. "The Godfather" is ours, not these rapper kids who try to act all bad!

Yeah, the lowest common denominator.

I love it, I think the same thing when seeing these people on TV. And I'm not racist either..