During a performance early this morning at the LIV nightclub at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach, Phoenix yelled obscenities at a heckler and then jumped off stage to confront the audience member.

Security guards broke things up, dragging Phoenix on stage and escorting him away.

I wonder if security hadn’t broken up the fight, who would have walked away with the least bruises? Does Phoenix just talk the talk or can he back it up with some muscle? He’s a pretty big guy, so maybe he could take a heckler, if he’s not too drugged up to know what’s really going on. Excuse me, I’m sorry. He’s not a drugged up weirdo who’s ruining his acting career, he’s reinventing himself. Right.

Doors opened at the nightclub at 10:30 p.m. but Phoenix kept the crowd waiting for almost three and a half hours. He made his appearance on stage before 2 a.m., smoking a cigarette and sporting his authentic rapper gear – a wrinkled dark suit and sneakers (classy!), along with his now signature straggly long hair and beard.

Phoenix then started his killer show, rapping mostly unintelligible lyrics to a beat played by a DJ. An audience member near the stage appears to heckle his performance.

The rapper responds by saying, “We have a (double-expletive) in the audience.” He goes on to brag that he has “a million dollars in his (expletive) bank account,” before jumping off the stage into the crowd.

Showing up hours late to his show, bragging about how much cash he’s got – how could anyone deny Phoenix is a rapper?! I really think he should exchange the mountain-man beard for some gold chains, but he is getting there!

The would-be brawl makes sense considering Phoenix’s rap debut in a Las Vegas club in January included him falling off the stage after performing a one-song set, according to Rolling Stone. I mean, after such an amazing performance for your debut, where do you go from there to keep your fans talking?

Then again, who wants to bet the heckler was in on the whole thing? After all, actor Casey Affleck, Phoenix’s brother-in-law, was at the Miami club, recording the performance on camera. Affleck is supposedly filming a documentary about Phoenix’s career change.

“(Affleck’s) camera was filming the whole time, so it makes me think he has ulterior motives,” clubgoer Luis Gendron said.

Phoenix’s publicist confirmed in October that he was switching careers.

Entertainment Weekly reported that a source close to Phoenix said that the former actor told him, “It’s a put-on. I’m going to pretend to have a meltdown and change careers, and Casey is going to film it.”

Although Phoenix may be a questionable rapper, he got country singer-songwriter Johnny Cash down pat, winning a Golden Globe for 2005’s “Walk the Line” and a Grammy for the soundtrack on which he performed nine songs.

Read the AP article here.

Read the Entertainment Weekly article here.

Read the Rolling Stone article here.