When Venom was released in 2018, the Tom Hardy-led Spider-Man villain spinoff came with a hip-hop theme song by none other than Eminem. It’s safe to say Hardy was thrilled that the iconic rapper was tied to the film, given the charismatic English actor has long been a massive fan. In fact, Hardy has even dabbled in rapping himself over the years—with mixed results. Still, when he met Eminem for the first time backstage at a show, Hardy’s own fame did little to stop him from feeling like an awkward fanboy embarrassing himself in front of his idol.
Hardy’s history with hip-hop music goes back to his teen years, so he’s been an aficionado for a very long time. In 2011, he told the BBC that he began writing his own lyrics and rapping in his bedroom when he was 14 or 15, although he admitted it was hard to get anyone in his life to take him seriously. He chuckled, “I come from a nice middle-class neighbourhood; it was a very hard sell. And I wasn’t very good.”
However, the fact that Hardy managed to sign with the manager who oversaw the career of The Fugees would seem to indicate that he had some real talent in the rap game. In fact, Hardy admitted he recorded a lot of material with Grammy-winning producers Warren Riker and Gordon Williams, but none of it was ever released to the public.
In 2018, though, Hardy’s pal Ed Tracy, who is now a TV writer, released an album on Bandcamp that he and Hardy recorded in 1999. He revealed that they went by the monikers ‘Tommy No.1’ and ‘Eddie Too Tall’ at that time, and Hardy recorded all his bars on a handheld tape Dictaphone. He told Complex that there were “No overdubs or editing. Tom had a click track for timing, but that was it. He had to get it in one take. Raw production techniques!” Amazingly, Tracy claimed that he and Hardy were offered a record deal on the strength of this album, but Hardy’s agent implored him to pursue acting instead.
With this in mind, it’s easy to see why Hardy would have been ecstatic to find out that a rap superstar like Eminem would be writing a song about his slimy-tongued symbiote supervillain. He told Yahoo, “I’m a huge Eminem fan, I’m not gonna lie. I love hip-hop and rap music, and I’m just really grateful that I get to meet and work alongside people who are super-talented and legends.”
Amusingly, though, when Hardy appeared on the Whoo’s House Podcast in 2024, he revealed that his first in-person encounter with Eminem wasn’t as cool as he might have imagined. He explained, “I went to his concert, and I felt sorry for him because I got ushered to his dressing room backstage to say hello.”
Instead of a meeting between two men at the top of their respective games in the entertainment business, Hardy felt the situation came across more like a starry-eyed fan bothering their hero while they were trying to psyche themselves up to rock a crowd. He lamented, “He had to take a photo with me, and I felt like a real dick. He’s nice, but he had to go on stage. So, it’s like he’s prepping to do his job, and then some idiot like me comes in and was like, ‘Hey.’”
Instead of getting into a spirited conversation about music and movies and everything in between, Hardy admitted, “He just deadpanned me.” It was so awkward and embarrassing, in fact, that he realised his only option was to say, “OK. Now is not the time. We’ll save this for another time.”
Unfortunately, it’s not even known if Hardy got to regale ‘the real Slim Shady’ with tales of ‘Tommy No.1’ and his bedroom rap masterpiece.
