Tom Hardy's astounding Nineties rap mixtape has emerged online

The path to fame is rarely smooth. There are the embarrassing acting gigs, the appearances on gameshows and adverts for deeply unglamorous products. For Bafta-winner and popular CBeebies Bedtime Stories narrator Tom Hardy, there was a pre-millennium rapping incident. 

Hardy hasn't been shy about his urban music exploits. In 2011 he told the BBC about them, saying he started when he was 14, but struggled to gain much attention "Because I come from a nice middle-class neighbourhood... And I wasn't very good."

Hardy did, however, have some relatively fancy rap connections: "I used to be with the guy who managed Leela James and Lauren Hill, Pras, the Fugees and all that," he said. "I worked out with (Grammy winning producers) Warren Riker and Gordon Williams."

He even made a promise that, for the past seven years, many have hoped would come good: "I've recorded loads of stuff but it's never been released. I've got albums, man."

That fateful day has now arrived.  Edward Tracy, Hardy's teenage collaborator-turned-TV writer/joy-enabler has now published their efforts on music uploads website bandcamp. 

As Tracy explains on "Tommy No 1 + Eddy Too Tall"'s page, these recordings were "made in a bedroom [in] 1999, these mixtapes were never really finished.  Lyrics written and performed by Tom Hardy. Music written and produced by Ed Tracy."

The album, Falling on Your Arse in 1999, is no less than 18 songs long and features songs such as Doh Back Again and Dr Livingstoned, which could be interpreted as a precursor to The Streets' The Irony of it All, released on Original Pirate Material three years later. The observational People Like to Boogie shows Hardy has the potential of a winning lyricist with the line: "I'd like to make a lot of dough / Do some bigger shows / Maybe have a limo".

Charitably, Tracy has made the album available to buy at a price the customer is encouraged to name.