binkywood: Joaquin Phoenix, actor rapper

Joaquin Phoenix said "Bye! Good" to acting late last year so he could focus on making music, and even though it seemed kind of spur-of-the-moment, there had been talk of his interest in music before. Based on his Golden Globe-winning performance as Johnny Cash in Walk the Line, it seemed like a music career for Joaquin wasn't all that far-fetched.

When he announced his retirement from acting, many wondered if his strange behaviour (his scruffy, disheveled appearance and the whole BYE! GOOD thing) was a result of drug abuse. Those questions are being asked again after a weekend performance in which Joaquin revealed the genre of music he's pursuing: rap.

Joaquin put on his first show at LAVO, a Vegas nightclub, this weekend. He looked like something the cat dragged in and seemed to spend the majority of the time walking back and forth across the stage sounding pretty unintelligible.

Later on in the performance, Joaquin falls - in the video, it looks like he just up and walked off the stage. If that wasn't weird enough, there's this: Ben Affleck's brother, Casey, who is also Joaquin's brother-in-law, was there filming the whole thing - Casey is making a documentary on Joaquin's quest to become a musician.

Also? Joaquin's first album is supposedly being produced by none other than Diddy himself.

I've heard two theories about this story since I first read about it over the weekend: that Joaquin's on drugs or it's a big joke (think Spinal Tap).

He addressed the latter with People, saying, "After all the years of reading scripts and reading lines, this is my chance to do something straight from the heart and put it out there. When I was young I liked punk rock music but then I discovered rap. I love the storytelling aspect of hip-hop."

"Are there people out there who think I'm a joke? I'm sure there will be. Are there people who think it's going to suck? Probably, but I can’t worry about that."

The crowd didn't seem to think it sucked - maybe Joaquin's serious about this whole rap thing? I don't know, but I wish him the best of luck if he is.

[source]