Czarface, Busta Rhymes, Method Man, EL-P — and plenty of movie references. Tom Hardy’s rap alter ego has arrived.
Tom Hardy has finally dropped his debut album under the name Frankie Pulitzer, Hardy has teamed up with underground hip-hop trio Czarface for Czarface Meets Frankie Pulitzer, a 15-track album packed with boom-bap, comic-book imagery and heavyweight features.
The guest list is serious. Busta Rhymes appears on “Raw Forever”, Method Man joins “Mad Technology”, while EL-P turns up on “Dragon Cannon”. Kendra Morris also features on “Frankie”. It was always likely that Hardy’s film career would find its way into his bars. On “Raw Forever”, he references Nicolas Cage, Martin Scorsese’s Bringing Out the Dead, Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin and Doctor Doom.
Elsewhere, “Mad Technology” brings in Stephen King references, including Cujo and Misery, alongside nods to Thor and Miles Morales. There are also references to Titanic, The Matrix and plenty more.
“Hardy doesn’t leave Hollywood behind. He flips it into bars.”
Of course, there had to be a Bane moment. On “Grim-Visaged War”, Hardy delivers part of Shakespeare’s Richard III using the gravelly voice of his Dark Knight Rises villain. It sounds ridiculous, but over a Czarface beat, it somehow works. There’s also a neat hip-hop connection: Hardy has previously cited Busta Rhymes, Method Man and Redman among the influences on Bane’s voice.
For all the Hollywood references, the music stays firmly in Czarface territory. Inspectah Deck, 7L and Esoteric bring the dusty samples, hard drums and dark, cinematic production that have become their trademark. There’s no glossy makeover here. Hardy is dropped straight into the Czarface universe and given room to play with the Frankie Pulitzer character.
That makes the album feel less like a celebrity side project and more like a genuine underground rap collaboration. Hardy has been recording and experimenting with hip-hop for years, so Frankie Pulitzer hasn’t appeared out of nowhere.
What makes Czarface Meets Frankie Pulitzer work is the combination of Hardy’s characters and movie obsession with Czarface’s comic-book approach to rap.
It’s strange, theatrical and definitely unexpected. But it doesn’t feel like a joke.
Frankie Pulitzer has arrived — and Czarface have given him the perfect soundtrack.
Have you checked out his album? Thoughts?
