The veteran Boston indie rapper Esoteric really collects unlikely collaborators. Back when John Cena was early in his wrestling career and doing a rap-battle gimmick, Esoteric was a big part of that. Much more recently, Kurt Vile shouted out Czarface, Esoteric's group with longtime partner 7L and Wu-Tang Clan member Inspectah Deck, in a Pitchfork "Perfect 10" video, which led to Esoteric jumping onstage with Vile at a Boston show and spitting bars over "Bassackwards." Czarface's upcoming album Czarface Meets Frankie Pulitzer has an El-P feature, which is only unlikely if you remember El-P mercilessly going after 7L & Esoteric on Aesop Rock's "We're Famous" in 2003. And then there's the actual Frankie Pulitzer of that upcoming album. You probably know him better as Tom Hardy.
I had no idea this was happening, but Tom Hardy, real-deal movie star, has been rapping under the Frankie Pulitzer name, making music with Czarface, for years. After making albums with MF DOOM and Ghostface Killah, Czarface continue the masked-villain theme on Czarface Meets Frankie Pulitzer, teaming up for a whole LP with motherfucking Bane. (I just showed The Dark Knight Rises to my son over the weekend, and that shit goes harder than I remembered.)
We already posted Czarface and Frankie Pulitzer's single "Brothers Grimm." Yesterday, they shared another song, "All It Takes Is One Bad Day." Inspectah Deck and Esoteric both go in over the bright, energetic boom-bap beat, and Hardy mentions that his "world is fire and blood" but refutes his own status: "Better schedule interventions for the haters in my mentions/ Confusing me with Hollywood stars, that's bizarre." Listen below.
Czarface Meets Frankie Pulitzer is out 8/28 on Silver Age. And now I have to wonder: Will John Cena ever make an album with Czarface? Peacemaker is more of a masked antihero than a masked villain, but you can see it, right?
