Tom Hardy Has A Secret Rap Career & He's Actually Really Good

Tom Hardy has become a household name thanks to his many standout film and television performances. From "The Dark Knight Rises" to "Peaky Blinders" to "Mad Max: Fury Road," he has excelled in a variety of productions and roles throughout the past few decades. Along the way, he's won prestigious awards, received critical acclaim, left his mark on iconic characters, and tried out more than a few weird accents. As it turns out, Hardy has even dabbled in another form of entertainment, and he's actually proven himself quite capable within it as well.

While becoming a globally-known actor, Hardy has also embarked on a secret rap career. He has gone by the name Frankie Pulitzer, or Face Puller, and his work under these monikers is pretty solid. His biggest collaboration to date came with the supergroup known as Czarface, which is comprised of rap duo 7L & Esoteric as well as Inspectah Deck of Wu-Tang Clan fame. Hardy's Pulitzer features on such tracks as "The Czarlacc Pit" and "Frenzy in a Far Off World," and the "Venom: The Last Dance" actor more than holds his own with these hip-hop legends.

As it turns out, Hardy's interest in the rap game isn't anything new. His efforts into it date back to his teenage years, with his interest eventually culminating in the creation of a full-on album.

Tom Hardy's acting tenure kicked off in the early 2000s as he launched his filmography with such titles as "Black Hawk Down," "Band of Brothers" (on which you likely forgot he had a role), and the film where Sir Patrick Stewart avoided him on set, "Star Trek: Nemesis." Before making the jump to screens big and small, though, Hardy's aspirations of making it big in the music world came first and foremost. Long before adopting his secret Frankie Pulitzer stage name, he was known as Tommy No. 1, and he worked on a mixtape using that name at the tail end of the 1990s.

Alongside Eddie Too Tall, real name Edward Tracy, Hardy assembled the album "Falling on Your Arse in 1999." Unfortunately, as Hardy admitted in a 2011 interview with BBC, he didn't feel the material was strong enough to release. "Because I come from a nice middle-class neighborhood it was a very hard sell. And I wasn't very good," he said, recalling that he at least managed to score a recording deal and connect with some pretty influential names in the industry. Of course, some of Hardy's songs have since made their way online, allowing fans the chance to hear his long-dormant work at long last.

Evidently, Tom Hardy's love for rap hasn't gone away, even as he's hit it big in Hollywood. Perhaps someday he'll lean more heavily into it, shedding the pseudonyms and secrecy to fully embrace the art form he has pursued for so long.