Joaquin Phoenix, who famously announced to the world that he was retiring from the world of acting, announced last week that he was going to try and launch a career as a rap musician. Yeah. Over the weekend, Joaquin showed up in Las Vegas to show off his rap skillz in front of a large audience and, well, things didn’t go very well:

As forewarned, Joaquin Phoenix appeared at a Las Vegas nightclub this weekend to turn in his debut performance as the world’s newest actor-turned-rap-star. “This is me saying this is who I am. This is my story,” Phoenix announced before launching into his set. However, despite industry coaching courtesy of Diddy, a recent dance-off win under his belt and a couple Oscar nods, the would-be J. Pheezy’s performance failed to generate much more than a few embarrassing viral videos. While it wouldn’t be fair to say Phoenix totally crashed and burned, he at least accomplished the former. After a few semi-coherent songs, Phoenix closed the show by tumbling off the stage. Apart from the usual YouTube footage, the whole thing was caught on tape by Phoenix’s pal and brother-in-law, Casey Affleck — who, as previously reported, is helming a (fake?) documentary about Phoenix’s switch from A-list actor to fledgling musician. “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,” Phoenix said during his show. “When I was young I liked punk rock music but then I discovered rap. I love the storytelling aspect of hip-hop.” Since saying “Bye! Good!” to Hollywood in November, it seems Phoenix has at least been lucid enough to realize that most people aren’t taking his new career seriously (unless his new career is becoming the world’s foremost guerilla mockumentarian, in which case we’re totally taking him seriously. Somewhere under that musty toque and matted beard, we’re hoping Phoenix’s comedic mind cogs are simply a few steps ahead of the rest of us). “Are there people out there who think I’m a joke? I’m sure there will be,” Phoenix told People magazine backstage before the show — and, subsequently, before he (quite jokily) fell off the stage. “Are there people who think it’s going to suck? Probably, but I can’t worry about that.”

Either Joaquin absolutely knows what he is doing and has yet to clue us in on his grand scheme for his new artistic plans or he has plumb done lost his mind. Here is video of Joaquin rapping on stage in Vegas over the weekend:

It’s hard to make out what he’s rapping but I don’t think that comprehension is really what he is going for. After the jump, check out the other video of Joaquin taking an embarrassing spill off the stage and into the shocked and bewildered crowd …



Yes, in this second video he’s not rapping as much as he’s insanely jumping around on stage. This ridiculous period in Joaquin‘s career reminds me of the time when Mariah Carey suffered her mental breakdown LIVE on TRL back in 2001 (after her movie Glitter failed miserably at the box office). Here’s hoping that Joaquin‘s brush with seeming insanity is just as brief. Mimi managed to pull herself together and get her career back on track … it remains to be seen if Joaquin can do the same.

[Photo credit: Splash News; Source, Source, Source]