Tom Hardy has been rapping as Frankie Pulitzer since 2021, and now there is an album

If you had to pick a celebrity most likely to moonlight as an undercover rapper, Tom Hardy would be top of the list — which is probably why nobody clocked it for so long. Hardy's been happy to duck the press for years, usually preferring to act in a mask (see: Bane, Venom, Mad Max, almost half his filmography), so it's hardly a shock his rap career developed under a disguise as well. Still, you might not have spotted just how far his secret side project has gone in the last twelve months.

Czarface Meets Frankie Pulitzer is a 15-track album pairing Tom Hardy's rap alter ego with hip hop supergroup Czarface, now streaming as of 28 August 2026.

Low-key rapping goes full album

Since 2021, Hardy's been moonlighting as Frankie Pulitzer, occasionally appearing (always these days masked, obviously) to drop a guest verse here and there. Now, this year's seen that hobby explode into something rather more public. On 28 August 2026, streaming services got hit with Czarface Meets Frankie Pulitzer — a proper, full-length collaboration with the comic book-obsessed collective Czarface (aka Inspectah Deck of Wu-Tang and Boston rap duo 7L & Esoteric). Yes, that's right: Tom Hardy, as lead artist for fifteen tracks.

If you're still in any doubt about who's lurking behind the mask, the record makes it pretty explicit. On track six (Grim-Visaged War), Hardy closes out with Shakespeare's Richard III speech — and, for good measure, does it in the same half-Bane, half-Gotham accent familiar from The Dark Knight Rises. He jumps through more film nods on Raw Forever — talking about Scorsese's Bringing Out the Dead, Green Goblin, Dog Day Afternoon, Doctor Doom — and at points, his delivery swaps between Venom's gravel and a Titanic reference. All very on-brand.

How we got here

Hardy dabbling in hip-hop isn't exactly new. He actually had a whole project in the can back in 1999 — a mixtape with producer Edward Tracy, with the memorable title Falling on Your Arse. That recording never got a label release and only ended up on the internet in 2018, causing a quick burst of Twitter confusion. At the time, Hardy told BBC he'd been quietly working on music for ages, with ideas tucked away in the vault. In his words:

'I've got albums, man. It'll come out in a film one day; it'll come out in a character somewhere.'

Turns out, he wasn't just mucking about. This new record lands while Hardy's schedule is as jammed as it's ever been — busy on screen and off it.

Everything else Hardy is juggling

If you're wondering whether the day job's on pause, think again. Hardy's currently starring in MobLand, Guy Ritchie's splashy new crime drama for Paramount+. The show broke viewing records for a premiere on the streamer and comes back for series two on 18 September, with Hardy once again playing fixer Harry Da Souza. All the same, the production's fuelled plenty of whispers about on-set drama and whether Hardy's likely to stick around long term.

Outside that, he's attached to Sean Penn's next feature — the much-rumoured 77 Blackout with Mahershala Ali — and still shepherding a few films through his own banner, Hardy Son & Baker.

• Czarface Meets Frankie Pulitzer drops 28 August 2026, starring Tom Hardy as Frankie Pulitzer
• The album features Inspectah Deck, 7L & Esoteric, and references pop culture from Shakespeare to Scorsese
• MobLand season two releases 18 September, and Hardy's future on the show remains a bit up in the air
• Older Hardy music surfaced online in 2018, originally written in 1999
• Further acting projects with Sean Penn and Mahershala Ali are also on his slate