MonoNeon & Cardi B - "Quiet Bi*ches Are Evil Bi*ches"
We’re assuming you know who MonoNeon is but if not, we’ll be diligent and explain. Dwayne ‘MonoNeon’ Thomas Jr is a musician having played with the likes of Prince and Ne-Yo. After some time at Berklee College of Music, he went on to play with fellow guitarist David Fiuczynski. But in a wider sense, MonoNeon is more well known for his bass accompaniments to viral videos. Everyone from Cardi B to Will Smith has got the “Mono” treatment and after the videos, he puts up his art manifesto, a 10 point statement of his creative intentions.
Stream one of his videos below and take a read of the manifestos when you’re done (there’s actually two so fill your boots).
Transcripts
- Write your own vision and read it daily.
- Have the southern soul/blues & and funk at the bottom and the experimental/avant-garde at the top…(YOUR SOUND!)
- Make your life audible daily with the mistakes… the flaws… er’thang.
- Understand and accept that some people are going to like what you do and some are going to dislike it… when you understand and accept that dichotomy… move on!
- Embrace bizarre juxtapositions (sound, imagery, etc)
- Conceptual art. Minimalism.
- Polychromatic color schemes. High-visibility clothing.
- DIY!
- Childlike
- Reject the worldly idea of becoming a great musician… JUST LIVE MUSIC!
- It’s not about being different anymore, it’s about doing what I want.
- The simple act of choosing an ordinary object is ART enough, just dignify it. (ex. MonoNeon’s readymade bass)
- Microtonal-Southern Soul (Julian Carrillo and Z.Z. Hill, Ivan Wyschnegradsky and Denise LaSalle, Alois Haba and Little Milton, etc.)
- I wanna’ play the way I live, and the way I live ain’t perfect…. it ain’t flawless.
- Minimalism sculptures by Anne Truitt, Sol LeWitt, and Richard Serra will help you play, so find the inspiration in it.
- There is no time for insecurity….
- At the end of the day, we all just wanna’ be heard.