Tom Hardy’s ’90s Rap Mixtape Has Surfaced, and It Is Strangely Good

Yesterday, the Internet blessed us. Posted to the sub-reddit /r/hiphopheads, a link to an 18-track Bandcamp mixtape entitled Falling on Your Arse, released in 1999, has attracted an inordinate amount of attention. That’s because the MC featured on said tape happens to be none other than Tom Hardy. Yes, that Tom Hardy.

It turns out the Oscar-nominated actor had/has bars. So please, do yourself a favour and listen to Bane himself spit hot fire:

The reddit post was titled “[FRESH] Tom Hardy’s unfinished album from 1999 finally found it’s way online. But is it any good?” And it now has a “Bad Title” sticker posted next to it by the moderators.

But who could have gotten their hands on a 1999 Tom Hardy mixtape? The reddit user who posted the link was /u/edwardtracy. A quick Google search of Ed Tracy will bring you to the website of a BAFTA-winning television writer and director. It’s undeniably Tom Hardy’s (or should we say, Tommy No 1’s) face that’s photographed on the cover of the mixtape, and that chap next to him? He looks exactly like a 1999 version of Ed Tracy, going by this picture on his website.

Ed Tracy

Turns out Tracy went by the stage name Eddie Too Tall while producing the lo-fi beats, and it’s a nickname he continues to use (see: his professional website, too-tall.com). The strangest thing about all this? Hardy’s harsh, underground cockney flow — over ’90s backpack rap beats laden with jazzy vocals and film soundtrack samples — is actually kinda good!

But will Tommy No 1 be dropping a sophomore album in the future? I doubt we can expect anything from the A-lister any time soon, as his upcoming anti-superhero flick Venom is currently in production, and the Brit has already signed on for films War Party, produced by Ridley Scott, and Mad Max: The Wastleland, the second Hardy instalment of the rebooted George Miller franchise. But hey, never say never.

Watch out, Marky Mark. There’s a new best rapper-turned-actor in town.