‘MobLand’ Star Tom Hardy’s Wild New Rap Album Is Packed with Movie References

Tom Hardy has built a career on disappearing into roles, from the growling menace of Bane to the chaos of Venom’s symbiote host. What fewer casual fans know is that Hardy has quietly maintained a second creative life in hip-hop for years, one that’s finally stepping fully into the spotlight.

That secondary career traces back to underground rap alias Frankie Pulitzer, also known as Face Puller, a persona Hardy first debuted on Czarface’s 2021 EP “Good Guys, Bad Guys” before returning for a feature on the group’s 2022 album “Czarmageddon!” Czarface itself, made up of Wu-Tang Clan’s Inspectah Deck alongside Boston duo 7L and Esoteric, has built its reputation on comic-book-inspired concept albums and collaborations with hip-hop heavyweights.

Now, that partnership has grown into a full-length project. Hardy has released “Czarface Meets Frankie Pulitzer,” a 15-track collaborative album loaded with pop culture references and guest appearances from Busta Rhymes, Method Man, and El-P, out now through Silver Age Records.

On the Busta Rhymes-featured track “Raw Forever,” Hardy stacks his verse with nods to Martin Scorsese’s 1999 film ‘Bringing Out the Dead,’ Willem Dafoe’s take on the Green Goblin, Doctor Doom, DC Comics hero Sergeant Rock, and Sidney Lumet’s 1975 classic ‘Dog Day Afternoon.’ The dense web of references reflects the same comic-book and cinema-obsessed style Czarface has built its catalog around for years.

Hardy gets even more provocative on the Method Man-assisted “Mad Technology,” where he name-checks two Stephen King adaptations, ‘Cujo’ and ‘Misery,’ before delivering a strikingly explicit line about ‘Misery’ star Kathy Bates that’s already generating buzz online for how unexpected it is coming from the actor.

Hardy’s rap history runs deeper than this album might suggest to casual observers. Before his acting career took off, he reportedly performed under the name Tommy No 1, and his work with Czarface has continued sporadically for years, including a collaboration with Method Man on the track “Knull & Void” and appearances on tracks that made their way into ‘Venom: Let There Be Carnage.’

Early listener reaction has been largely positive, with fans praising the chemistry between Hardy and Czarface’s core trio, along with pointed references to Hardy’s own film career woven throughout the album, including nods to his Venom role. That kind of self-aware humor has helped the project land as more than just a celebrity vanity project.

The album’s release also lands amid a separate swirl of headlines around Hardy’s status on the Paramount+ crime thriller ‘MobLand,’ after reports suggested friction with producers over scheduling and creative disagreements. A production insider later clarified to Variety that Hardy hasn’t been fired and that the door remains open for a third season, even as work continues behind the scenes to resolve the situation.

Between the record’s dense pop-culture callbacks and its surprisingly candid moments, “Czarface Meets Frankie Pulitzer” gives fans a very different side of Tom Hardy than they’re used to seeing on screen. The project also fits neatly into Czarface’s broader catalog, which has previously included full-length collaborations with the late MF DOOM, Ghostface Killah, and Kool Keith, all built around the same blend of comic-book mythology and dense, reference-heavy verses.

Track titles across the album lean further into that comic-book aesthetic, with names like “Grim-Visaged War,” “Omega Beam,” and “Intruder… Seems Curious” giving the record a pulpy, larger-than-life feel that matches Czarface’s established brand. For longtime fans of the group, Hardy’s inclusion as Frankie Pulitzer feels less like a celebrity cameo and more like a natural extension of the world they’ve spent over a decade building.

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