You weren’t expecting this: Tom Hardy drops a rap album loaded with movie references
Tom Hardy has dropped a rap album — and he isn’t even using his own name.
Every so often you stumble across a bit of celebrity news that just sounds made up, but no, this one’s completely real: Tom Hardy has released a rap album. Not a cameo, not one track for a film—an actual, full-on album, recorded under his alias Frankie Pulitzer, and it's stuffed to the gills with film references. And yes, it really is as bizarre as it sounds.
Czarface Meets Frankie Pulitzer arrived this year, with a string of guest spots from names like Busta Rhymes and Method Man.
Film Geeks With Bars
Right, so the album’s called Czarface Meets Frankie Pulitzer, and Hardy isn’t messing about with his collaborators. He’s teamed up with underground rap group Czarface—that’s 7L & Esoteric plus Wu-Tang Clan’s own Inspectah Deck. It's like some alternate reality Avengers for rap nerds, and Hardy’s just thrown himself straight into it.
They roped in guest appearances from people you actually know—Busta Rhymes, Method Man, and a few others—so it’s got proper pedigree on the production side. But the real ‘wait, what?’ is the lyrics. Hardy’s written verses that are basically a fever dream for anyone remotely into movies or comics.
Bane Doing Shakespeare, Doctor Doom, and Spider-Man
One track, ‘Raw Forever’, sees Hardy stringing together references only a massive film fan (or, well, a working actor) would land. He’s shouting out Martin Scorsese films, quoting Willem Dafoe’s ‘somewhat of a scientist’ line from Spider-Man, and dropping in Doctor Doom, Dog Day Afternoon, and more comic book jargon than a Comic-Con panel. Here’s just a flavour:
- ‘I’m Bringing Out the Dead like a paramedic out the Cage, directed by Marty’
- ‘I be somewhat of a scientist like Willem Dafoe’
- ‘Doctor Doom how I’m the Victor the Scripture’
As if that’s not weird enough, on ‘Grim-Visaged War’ Hardy starts reciting Shakespeare’s Richard III—the proper monologue—only he’s doing it in what can only be described as his Bane voice from The Dark Knight Rises. Who was asking for this? Absolutely no one, but here it is anyway.
If by now you’re not convinced Hardy’s having the most fun anyone’s ever had in a recording booth, you haven’t clocked ‘Mad Technology’, where he references Stephen King tales (Cujo, Misery) and delivers what can only be described as an aggressively unnecessary line about Kathy Bates—bit harsh, honestly.
And Back to MoBLand
This isn’t Hardy’s only headline at the moment. He’ll be reprising his role as fixer Harry Da Souza for MoBLand series two, which lands on Paramount+ on 18 September. There was a bit of drama around whether he’d return at all—allegedly Hardy and showrunner Jez Butterworth had creative differences so severe that Hardy walked for a bit. Whatever the dispute was, they’ve patched things up, and not only is Hardy back for season two, but there’s a third in the works as well.