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Tom Hardy has returned with his rap alias Frankie Pulitzer to deliver a new collaborative album, Czarface Meets Frankie Pulitzer, with the underground supergroup.
Czarface is made up of duo 7L & Esoteric and Wu-Tang Clan’s Inspectah Deck.
Fans in the know will already be aware of the Oscar-nominated British actor’s underground music career. In 2011 he spoke about recording “loads of stuff” that had never been released.
Well, now Hardy has surprised them by finally releasing his debut rap album, which features plenty of references to films and comic books – as well as an X-rated reference to Hollywood veteran Kathy Bates.
On “Raw Forever”, Hardy namechecks Martin Scorsese’s 1999 movie Bringing Out the Dead, along with Willem Dafoe’s depiction of the Green Goblin in 2002’s Spider-Man.
Meanwhile, on “Mad Technology” – also featuring Wu-Tang’s Method Man – he references Stephen King film adaptations Cujo and Misery, sandwiching them around his NSFW Bates mention.
Tom Hardy raps about Martin Scorsese, Marvel comics and Kathy Bates on his new album (AFP/Getty)
“You s***-for-brain no-name lame, that bites like Cujo,” he raps. “I’d rather masturbate to Kathy Bates than hear you flow/ And you know that Misery, it loves company.”
Bates won the Oscar for Best Actress when she starred in the iconic 1990 film Misery, directed by the late Rob Reiner and based on King’s 1987 novel, as obsessive fan Annie Wilkes who holds famed novelist Paul Sheldon (James Caan) captive.
Kathy Bates as the psychotic nurse Annie Wilkes opposite James Caan as Paul Sheldon in Rob Reiner’s ‘Misery’ (Getty Images)
The Independent has contacted Bates’s representative for comment.
Other collaborators on the project include Run the Jewels’s LP on “Dragon Cannon”, Kendra Morris on “Frankie”, and Busta Rhymes on “Raw Forever”.
Hardy deploys his voice-acting skills across the record, sounding a little like his character Eddie Brock from Marvel’s Venom franchise as he raps: “I eat people, break ribs, throw bodies off the Golden Gate bridge/ And I get it how I live like a cannibal/ I talk sick, toxic, highly flammable.”
Meanwhile, on “Grim-Visaged War”, fans will be reminded of his famous performance as Bane from Christopher Nolan’s Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises, as he recites Shakespeare’s Richard III monologue.
Hardy has not spoken publicly about his work as Frankie Pulitzer, but has appeared on previous Czarface albums and also released standalone singles.
In 1999, he recorded and released a mixtape titled Falling On Your Arse, which resurfaced on Reddit back in 2018.
Speaking to the BBC in 2011, Hardy commented: “I used to be [signed] with the guy who managed Leela James and Lauryn Hill, Pras, the Fugees and all that. I worked out with [Grammy-winning producers] Warren Riker and Gordon Williams. I’ve recorded loads of stuff but it’s never been released.”
So far, the fan reaction to Czarface Meets Frankie Pulitzer has been hugely positive. Is there a Grammy nomination on Hardy’s horizon?