Did you have Tom Hardy dropping a rap album on your 2026 bingo card? Yeah, neither did we. But the British actor just made it happen, and honestly, the tracks are solid.
Tom Hardy teamed up with Czarface—the duo of Wu-Tang Clan’s Inspectah Deck and production pair 7L & Esoteric—under the pseudonym Frankie Pulitzer for the project. The collaboration came together in a way that actually works: the production is crisp, the chemistry is there, and Hardy’s bars land.
One standout includes a feature from both Busta Rhymes and Method Man—two hip-hop fixtures who clearly saw something worth collaborating on. That kind of co-sign matters.
The stage name fits. Frankie Pulitzer’s pen work is sharp, with wordplay that catches you off guard. Worth diving into if you’re curious where this actually lands creatively.
What’s wild is this isn’t Hardy’s first rodeo with hip-hop. Back in 2011, he revealed in an interview that he’d scored a record deal as a teenager rapper at just 15 years old. His self-assessment at the time was refreshingly honest.
“Because I come from a nice middle-class neighbourhood, it was a very hard sell,” he said. “And I wasn’t very good!”
He went on to explain that he and his best friend Peanut—who grew up in the South Bronx and is a skilled MC—still make music together. “It’ll come out in a film one day; it’ll come out in a character somewhere,” Hardy said years ago.
Turns out that character was Frankie Pulitzer.
★★★
