Joaquin Phoenix has insisted that his plans to give up acting and carve a career in hip hop is not a joke. The actor was widely panned recently for rapping in Las Vegas club Lavo but many Internet sources claimed his performance and recent dishevelled appearance were all part of an elaborate hoax. Not so says Joaquin. “There's not a hoax. Might I be ridiculous? Might my career in music be laughable? Yeah, that's possible, but that's certainly not my intention," he told the Associated Press. “I don't know who said that people were booing ... because that was not happening....Unless, of course, it's a pretty big place, and maybe it was happening. But it was not my experience. My experience afterward was I had a lot of dudes come up and say, 'We really respect you for doing it, putting yourself out there, and going with it.' Because I think true hip-hop heads know that it's hard, it's going to be a hard transition, and people are going to be lining up just to make fun of me."
