Tom Hardy has played some of Hollywood’s most memorable characters, but his latest project takes him completely outside the world of movies.
Hardy has officially released his debut studio rap album under his longtime hip-hop alter ego Frankie Pulitzer, teaming with underground supergroup Czarface for the 15-track Czarface Meets Frankie Pulitzer.
And this isn’t simply a celebrity deciding to make a novelty rap album.
Hardy is joined by some serious hip-hop heavyweights, with Busta Rhymes, Method Man and El-P among the artists appearing on the project.
Czarface itself comes with plenty of hip-hop credibility. The group consists of Wu-Tang Clan’s Inspectah Deck, 7L and Esoteric, and has previously collaborated with artists including MF DOOM and Ghostface Killah.
Tom Hardy aka Frankie Pulitzer
Hardy’s Frankie Pulitzer persona may be unfamiliar to many of his movie fans, but his connection to hip-hop goes back decades.
Long before becoming one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, Hardy recorded music in the late 1990s under the name Tommy No. 1, working with producer Edward Tracy, aka Eddie Too Tall. The pair recorded a mixtape titled Falling on Your Arse in 1999, which remained largely unheard by the public until resurfacing online years later.
Hardy has also quietly worked with Czarface before, making Czarface Meets Frankie Pulitzer less of a sudden career change and more of the culmination of a musical side project he has been developing for years.
The album is also packed with the kind of pop culture references you might expect from a collaboration with Czarface, with references ranging from comics and movies to recognizable Hollywood names.
Tom Hardy [Kristina Bumphrey/Variety]
Hardy has previously spoken about his early ambitions as a rapper, revealing that music was something he seriously pursued before his acting career took off.
Now, more than 25 years after those early recordings, Frankie Pulitzer finally has a full-length album.
Czarface Meets Frankie Pulitzer was released August 28 and features 15 tracks, giving fans an entirely different side of the actor known for Venom, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Revenant and The Dark Knight Rises.
Hardy may be one of Hollywood’s most recognizable actors, but Frankie Pulitzer makes it pretty clear that his interest in hip-hop was never just a passing hobby.
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