The Hip-Hop Thread

[Seabiscuit36]

Joaquin Phoenix wants to be a rapper

Joaquin Phoenix insists he's jilting Hollywood for hip-hop

Actor says his new career as a rapper is the rizzle dizzle

By DAVID GERMAIN
AP Movie Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Joaquin Phoenix is torn between two lovers in what he professes will be his last film.

As he talks passionately about his new pursuits, it seems he's not torn between artistic muses. Movies are out, and music is in, Phoenix insists.

After the dark romantic drama "Two Lovers," which opens Friday, Phoenix said he is through with acting, and nothing is going to coax the two-time Academy Award nominee back to that first creative love.

"I'm not one of those people, like, when I break up with my girlfriend, I don't ever see her again. I see her as friends, but do I ever think about getting back together? No, when I do something, I do it. So I have no intention," Phoenix, 34, said in an interview.

When Phoenix announced last fall that music was his new direction, many fans assumed he caught the country bug from playing Johnny Cash in 2005's "Walk the Line." Instead, he surprised people again by turning to hip-hop, a genre he says he's adored since his teens.

"I love the storytelling aspects of hip-hop, but I love the wordplay, as well," Phoenix said. "I just think the rhyming is fantastic, and I love, like, the raw emotion of it."

The switch has puzzled fans and prompted speculation that it's a put-on, fueled by a video that turned up on the Web last month showing Phoenix rapping in a Las Vegas nightclub. The poor-quality video, with virtually incomprehensible audio, was not the sort of thing to earn Phoenix many admirers.

"No matter how good it is, people are going to ... make fun of me. It's just impossible. It's just not going to happen, but I can't worry about that," Phoenix said. "What I was focusing on was the song and trying to make the show as good as possible."

Phoenix has built a home recording studio where he is laying down tracks for an album. He said he is not yet certain how it will be distributed, and while it is mostly a solo effort, Phoenix hopes to do at least one track with rapper Diddy.

Now sporting a long, scraggly beard and scruffy hair, Phoenix has drawn online wisecracks about a look far removed from singer Cash's clean-cut stage appearance. The actor said it was not so much about copping a new image as distancing himself musically from Cash.

"I'm not going with a look. Part of it is in some ways, it's very hard, especially when you're talking about music, to get away from Johnny Cash," Phoenix said. "In some ways, I'm aware that I need to kind of, I need to alter that persona. I need to alter my public persona in some ways so that people are going to be open to receiving me for what it is that I'm doing now ... .

"I don't know that this is my look," Phoenix said. "I mean, I just have a beard."

A definite follower of his music career is brother-in-law Casey Affleck, an Oscar-nominated actor himself who is making a documentary about Phoenix's career shift.

Affleck has been chronicling Phoenix's recording efforts and had a camera crew following him as he did publicity to promote "Two Lovers."
"It's a really interesting time in his life," Affleck said. "I've known him for a long time.

He's always made music, he's always talked about doing this. He's finally doing it."
Added Phoenix, in a joking aside: "He just wants me to fall on my face, and he wants to ... laugh about it."

One person not laughing is "Two Lovers" director James Gray, who collaborated with Phoenix twice previously with "The Yards" and "We Own the Night." Gray said he took it personally that Phoenix did not let him know he was quitting movies, and was disappointed that he wouldn't have another chance to work with the actor again.

In "Two Lovers," Phoenix plays an emotionally messed-up Brooklyn man living at home with his parents after a bad breakup. He embarks on an obsessive flirtation with a self-destructive neighbor (Gwyneth Paltrow) while courting the safe, sensible daughter (Vinessa Shaw) of a businessman interested in buying his parents' dry-cleaning operation.

Like Gray, co-star Shaw said she was disheartened to learn that Phoenix was abandoning his movie career.

"I really felt that disappointment that he's no longer going to be sharing his gift of acting, but whatever he wants to do with his life, whatever makes him happy," Shaw said.

Having seen how much strain acting puts on Phoenix, who stays in character throughout his shooting days, Gray said he takes the actor at his word that he's through with Hollywood.

"Toward the end, I was coming to the set at six (o'clock) in the morning, and he would be not due on set for another three hours, but he would be there in the corner with tears rolling down his cheeks," Gray said. "And I'd say, `What's the matter?' And he'd say, `I'm preparing for the day.' You never see anyone work that hard."

And if that weren't enough, Gray said he's seen Phoenix's elaborate home studio.
"If he's not serious about it," Gray said, "then he really went to ridiculous lengths."

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[Magical_Retard]

kanye isnt my boy...he just respects the architects unlike that douche lupe

and not listening to the radio is good for your health

i havent listend to music on the radio in well over ten years

True and I usually dont but the off chance that I do put on the radio its just every song is either a lil wayne song or a lil wayne collabo and usually involving tpain who i really can not stand.

Listen to Lupe's albums or mixtapes and tell me he does not respect the older generation or the rappers he grew up listening to. Not liking or listening to Tribe does not make him anti architects or whatever you call him.

[ice grillin you]

Not liking or listening to Tribe does not make him anti architects or whatever you call him.

other than his manager or his parents youre are the one person on earth that has defended him regarding his tribe debacle...you have to be a groupie whos related to him or something

[Magical_Retard]

I am not defending him. He should have never even attempted to perform that song if he did not know it.

But I am not going to judge his music on who he liked as a kid or who he did not listen to. Hell Lupe says he listened to 8ball and I can not stand his music. Who cares? Too many emotions being attached to music.

"...ooo he didn't listen to the music I listened to growing up...he has no cred...can not listen to him...my feelings are hurt...he sucks!"

BTW your the one who brought up the Tribe incident as if that indicates the level of quality of his album or his ability to rap. That would be equivalent to me saying Carter III sucks cause Wayne kissed Baby on the lips.

[reese125]

by way...Lil Wayne was on Around the Horn today and brought so much enthusiasm and insight to the show

great decision by the producers

[ice grillin you]

I am not defending him. He should have never even attempted to perform that song if he did not know it.

But I am not going to judge his music on who he liked as a kid or who he did not listen to. Hell Lupe says he listened to 8ball and I can not stand his music. Who cares? Too many emotions being attached to music.

"...ooo he didn't listen to the music I listened to growing up...he has no cred...can not listen to him...my feelings are hurt...he sucks!"

BTW your the one who brought up the Tribe incident as if that indicates the level of quality of his album or his ability to rap. That would be equivalent to me saying Carter III sucks cause Wayne kissed Baby on the lips.

never said that...hes douchebag for not knowing who tribe is and the comments he made

i dont know why he makes incredibly boring music

[phattymatty]

so i've had mobb deep in my rotation again lately and sometimes i forget how good shook ones part II is.

definitely one of my top 5 all-time tracks. 

[hbionic]

IGY...what did you think if this oldie:

Kwest Tha Madd Lad- 101 Things to do while Im with your girl

I dug that song.

[Seabiscuit36]

IGY...what did you think if this oldie:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFLjC-Zb_tg

I dug that song.

[ice grillin you]

IGY...what did you think if this oldie:

Kwest Tha Madd Lad- 101 Things to do while Im with your girl

I dug that song.

yeah i like that album a lot...lubrication is my shtein

[Seabiscuit36]

I'm listening to Sirius XMU the indie rock channel, and they've played DOOM/JDilla/WuTang in successive order, i'm wondering at what point Wu turned into Indie rock. 

The just followed it up with another new DOOM track with Ghost, and now Pete Rock and CL Smooth.  These crackers are confused

[ice grillin you]

when bitch ass hipsters tried to coopt hip-hop

[Diomedes]

bitch ass hipsters, ignant thug hipsters, what's the difference

[General_Failure]

The waist size of the pants worn?

[ice grillin you]

http://hollywoodinsider.ew.com/2009/03/nwa-biopic-set.html