Tom Hardy has released his first officially issued full-length rap album, performing under the name Frankie Pulitzer.
The Venom actor made Czarface Meets Frankie Pulitzer with Czarface, the hip-hop group formed by Wu-Tang Clan’s Inspectah Deck and 7L & Esoteric. The 15-track album was released Aug. 28 and features Busta Rhymes, Method Man, EL-P and Kendra Morris.
Deck said the first idea was Czarface Meets Venom. Marvel permissions got in the way. “Nah… let’s do Frankie Pulitzer,” Deck recalled Hardy saying.
On “Grim-Visaged War,” Hardy finishes the track by beginning William Shakespeare’s Richard III: “Now is the winter of our discontent.” Hardy played Bane opposite Christian Bale in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises in 2012. The muffled delivery on the song closely resembles the voice he used for the masked villain.
Before Frankie Pulitzer, Hardy Was Tommy No. 1
Hardy had another rap name in 1999. He recorded 18 tracks with his friend Ed Tracy as Tommy No. 1, while Tracy used the name Eddie Too Tall. Tracy later said they met through a mutual friend. He had been DJing and making jungle tracks when Hardy asked him to make hip-hop.
“Made in a bedroom 1999, these mixtapes were never really finished,” Tracy later wrote when the recordings surfaced. Hardy wrote and performed the lyrics. Tracy made the music. “All the vocals were recorded on a handheld tape dictaphone. No overdubs or editing,” Tracy said. Hardy had a click track for timing. “He had to get it in one take.”
In January 2018, Tracy put all 18 tracks online as Falling on Your Arse in 1999. Hardy was still Tommy No. 1 in the credits. Tracy was still Eddie Too Tall.
Music was not the only thing Hardy and Tracy were making together. Tracy remembered the two of them messing around with a video camera and making short films. Those recordings led to a record offer, Tracy said. Hardy’s agent had another idea: “No, don’t do music. Do acting.” Tracy’s verdict years later was shorter: “Terrible advice!”
Hardy eventually asked about the recordings again. “Last year, Tom asked me whether I still had the album kicking about in the loft,” Tracy recalled in 2018. He did. Tracy put the 18 unfinished tracks online that January as Falling on Your Arse in 1999.
“I’ve got albums, man,” Hardy told BBC Newsbeat years before Tracy released them. He also talked about Peanut, a friend and MC who had grown up in the South Bronx. Hardy said the two still made music together. Then came a line that aged rather well: “It’ll come out in a film one day; it’ll come out in a character somewhere.”
FacePuller Eventually Made It Into ‘Venom’
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In 2021, the soundtrack credits for Venom: Let There Be Carnage included “Today’s Special” by Czarface featuring Facepuller. Hardy was the star of the movie, playing Eddie Brock and Venom. Facepuller stayed around. Czarface’s description for the new album says Frankie Pulitzer is also known “in certain dimensions” as FacePuller.
Hardy Found Bane’s Voice on YouTube
Hardy found the starting point for Bane’s voice on YouTube. It was footage of Bartley Gorman, a Romany bare-knuckle fighter. “I have a voice for Bane,” Hardy remembered telling Christopher Nolan. “And then I did the voice.”
Years later, Hardy said he showed Nolan the Gorman footage and warned him, “We could get laughed out of the park.” Nolan’s response was: “No, I think we’ll go with it.” Hardy said they played with the voice and made it “a bit more fluid.”
On Czarface Meets Frankie Pulitzer, “Grim-Visaged War” is track six. When Hardy finishes Richard III, the next track is called “Dr. Yorgo in the Land of Acid 7.0.”