Joaquin Phoenix goes all MC JP on yo face

In a move that has the music press baffled and amused, Joaquin Phoenix appears to be pursuing a hip hop career.

Joaquin recently announced he was retiring from acting to focus on music and since he'd done such a great job portraying Johnny Cash PLUS the scruffy hipster beard, most of us probably assumed he'd go into some alt folk country rock indie thing or the like. But the dude wants to rap.

And, according to Rolling Stone, which got it from The Hollywood Reporter, the quest to become the new Eminem (or Vanilla Ice) will be filmed by Joaquin's brother in law Casey Affleck (apparently he's married to Summer Phoenix who, a web search reveals, has acted in plenty of indie films and has been a vegan since birth) and the thing will become a feature length documentary. AND word on the mean streets is that Diddy is going to produce the former actor's album.

I bet you're dying to know what he sounds like busting rhymes. Well, here you go! This video is from a live performance at LAVO nightclub in Las Vegas.

 

When he was done he fell off the stage. There's also this one.

Yeah, I don't know either. Eminem doesn't have anything to worry about just yet. 

At least he's enjoying himself right? He told People.com, "This is me saying this is who I am. This is my story. 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."

Or maybe he's joking. It could be a joke right? And the resulting movie will be one of the most hilarious mocumentaries ever.

Chances are he'll go back to movies. It feels like celebrities always announce they're retiring but they never do.