I was totally on board with Joaquin Phoenix’s decision to retire from acting to pursue his music career. But I was NOT on board with his genre of choice being hip-freakin-hop. JP performed his new rap act for a crowd of fans at club LAVO in Las Vegas this weekend.

“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,” he said. And why hip-hop? “When I was young I liked punk rock music but then I discovered rap. I love the storytelling aspect of hip-hop.”

While JP was rappin his scraggly little heart out, his brother-in-law, Casey Affleck was taping the performance for the documentary the two are working together that will chronicle JP’s transition into the music industry.

Joaquin spit out three songs to the sounds of a drum beat and encouraged everyone in the audience to dance. Although no one really took him up on the offer…they did watch intently wondering if he was for real or maybe if he was drinking again.

Though dancing was at a minimum, the crowd watched intently as a scraggly Phoenix – who donned a scraggly beard, long, unkempt hair and a ripped gray hat – hopped up and down and pumped his fist in the air during certain lyrics.