Photo: Sullivan/Getty
The weirdest news of the week comes by way of former actor Joaquin Phoenix, who bid adios to Hollywood with the phrase “Bye! Good” scribbled on his knuckles in order to pursue a career in music. If the Hollywood Reporter is to be believed, Phoenix has set his sights on a specific genre: hip-hop. That’s right, the man who played Johnny Cash on the big screen will attempt to become the next Eminem, and making it all more fun and surreal, the whole ordeal will be filmed.
According to the showbiz mag, Phoenix will perform his first hip-hop show tonight at an unspecified club in Las Vegas. The gig will be the filmed by Phoenix’s To Die For co-star, actor Casey Affleck. Ben’s brother will turn Phoenix’s pursuit to become a hip-hop star into a feature-length documentary. Stranger still, the Hollywood Reporter says none other than Diddy, who was recently seen partying up with Phoenix, will produce the actor’s album.
In what we thought was just a joke at the time, Phoenix actually attempted to rap during an impromptu concert last month in Culver City, California. As this fairly awesome video demonstrates, Joaquin, looking like Jim Morrison during the recording of L.A. Woman, mumbles and slurs his way through his verses while rhyming the words “Boom” and “Room” over and over again. The MC tells the likely stupefied crowd, “He ain’t done yet,” before Phoenix retakes the mike to similar results. If this is all a joke, this is maybe the best joke ever perpetrated by an actor. If this is really happening, well then at least the documentary should be entertaining.

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