In recent months, the eccentric bass enigma that is MonoNeon—in addition to being the last bassist for the late and legendary Prince—has become known for his musical translations of all manner of online videos. Mimicking the rhythm and tones of people speaking on his bass, he frequently releases side-by-side compilations of viral videos along with his own renditions. While these creations are inherently amusing in their own right, the covers also highlight MonoNeon’s immense musicality, especially given the fairly quick turnaround time it takes for him to make each one.
The videos MonoNeon chooses to cover on the bass are diverse. The list of videos he’s formerly reproduced ranges from recreations of funny Instagram clips to excerpts of speeches given by President Donald Trump. Sometimes, the subjects he picks are hilarious in their own right, like when he covered a video of an angry grandpa destroying a PlayStation 4. Other times, the bassist chooses to cover videos that—while frequently still absurd—bring attention to underlying societal issues in the United States, like when he covered a news clip about a teacher explaining why he called one of his student the N-word.
Yesterday, following the violent protests by white supremacists in Charlottesville, VA—dubbed “Unite The Right”—that left one woman dead and dozens injured after a car slammed into a group a peaceful counter-protesters, MonoNeon made one of our favorite “cover” videos to date. On Friday night, ahead of the “Unite The Right” rally, a smaller protest was held, with hundreds of white supremacists marching onto the University of Virginia’s campus with (tiki) torches in hand. Actor and comedian Michael Rapaport posted a video about the goings-on Friday evening that appropriately and hilariously roasted the protestors for being the human garbage that they are. MonoNeon chose to cover Rapaport’s rant, and we’re all about it. Take a look and listen for yourself below:
Shoutout to the people like Rapaport and MonoNeon who help to point out the absurdity of such hateful and violent behavior. No matter how constant it may seem in today’s world, we can’t allow ourselves and our country to normalize hate.