Tom Hardy has spent years disappearing into movie characters. Now the actor has another identity to add to the collection, and this one comes with a microphone.
Hardy has released his first officially issued full-length rap album under the name Frankie Pulitzer, joining forces with underground hip-hop group Czarface for the 15-track Czarface Meets Frankie Pulitzer.
The collaboration puts the Venom and Dark Knight Rises star alongside some serious hip-hop company. Czarface brings together Wu-Tang Clan veteran Inspectah Deck with 7L and Esoteric, while the album’s guest lineup includes Busta Rhymes, Method Man, EL-P and Kendra Morris.
For anyone assuming Hardy suddenly decided to become a rapper between movie shoots, there is considerably more history behind the project.
Hardy’s interest in hip-hop stretches back decades. He recorded rap material long before becoming an international movie star, including music from the late 1990s that eventually surfaced years later. More recently, he began working with Czarface, making Frankie Pulitzer less of a celebrity novelty act and more of a musical alter ego that has gradually moved into public view.
The new album gives that persona an entire record to work with.
Hardy’s movie career is never far from the proceedings. The project is loaded with references to films, comic books, actors and pop culture, creating an obvious bridge between the world audiences know him from and the hip-hop universe he is stepping further into.
“Raw Forever,” featuring Busta Rhymes, moves through references connected to Martin Scorsese’s Bringing Out the Dead, Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin and Marvel villain Doctor Doom.
Method Man joins the action on “Mad Technology,” where the cultural references venture into Stephen King territory with nods to Cujo and Misery.
Then there is “Grim-Visaged War,” which delivers perhaps the album’s most unmistakably Hardy moment. The actor turns to Shakespeare’s Richard III while adopting a delivery that recalls Bane, his masked villain from Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises.
It is the sort of crossover that could only really happen on a Tom Hardy rap record.
Celebrity albums can easily feel like temporary detours, but Hardy’s history with hip-hop makes Czarface Meets Frankie Pulitzer something different. He has been interested in making rap music since well before Hollywood made him famous, and his relationship with Czarface has been developing for years.
The difference now is that Frankie Pulitzer is no longer hiding in the background.
Tom Hardy the movie star is already well established. With a full-length album, Wu-Tang connections and some formidable guest MCs beside him, Frankie Pulitzer has officially stepped into the spotlight.
