Dywane Thomas Jr.

You may recognize Kirk A Johnson on drums, Mono Neon on bass and Adrian Crutchfield on sax and electric woodwinds as the house band 4 Prince’s Paisley Park After Dark Jam Sessions. Well, that’s not all they do. 4 the past week they’ve been cutting basic trax 4 their as yet untitled debut album. With Prince producing and handling the keyboard & guitar duties, the set promises 2 b picking up right where Judith Hill’s BACK IN TIME left off. These brothas murder the funk! Normally they wouldn’t let a track out until it’s finished, but this one had 2 go! It was ruining everybody’s good loox. If U think U can resist the funk, check out the key change of Mono’s bass solo at near 4 o'clockmark.

On 11 January 2016, Tidal released the track Ruff Enuff by MonoNeon, only four and a half days after its initial recording. The instrumental track features Prince as producer and on keyboards. The following day, the track was replaced with a vocal version with lead vocals on vocoder by Adrian Crutchfield.

In 2015 MonoNeon began playing bass with Prince and his protégé, Judith Hill. Some of the live shows have been at Paisley Park.

July 2014, MonoNeon made his debut performance as the bassist for Screaming Headless Torsos at Jalisco Jazz Festival in Mexico.

One of MonoNeon's bass cover videos performing KNOWER's arrangement/medley of Lady Gaga songs was voted Top 10 most watched video on NoTreble (March 2014).

In early 2013, Thomas released an album called Southern Visionary under the pseudonym MonoNeon. This album features several microtonal musicians. He also released an album entitled Uncle Curtis Answered The Lobster Telephone.

MonoNeon was featured in the January/February 2013 issue of Dig! Magazine, a Winnipeg jazz magazine.

In 2012, Thomas joined David Fiuczynski and Planet Microjam. Also in 2012, he released his solo avant-garde album, Down-to-Earth Art as MonoNeon.

The idea of conceptual art plays a role in his musical compositions, as reflected in his early 2011 recordings. Thomas began creating a vague idea of bass and AM/FM radio improvisations. The improvisations/compositions are based on radio art. Some of the bass and radio improvisations/compositions can be heard on his album entitled, Introspection of PolyNeon. The "Polyneon" concept is something Thomas created through introspection and when he stopped thinking about the worldly idea of becoming or being a great musician.

During his brief stay at Berklee College of Music he shared the stage with David Fiuczynski. After his departure from Berklee in 2010, Thomas went to Los Angeles to perform with Fiuczynski and Alex Bailey (drummer) at the Musicians Institute and The Baked Potato.

In 2010, Thomas played bass on the Libra Scale album by Grammy Award-winning artist Ne-Yo, and the album Directions by Forest Won with Georgia Anne Muldrow. Thomas was featured in the article, "Bass to the Future", in issue 52 of the UK Bass Guitar magazine.

MonoNeon performed with Sheri Jones-Moffett (2010 Grammy nominee) at the Recording Academy Chapter 40th Anniversary Celebration at Levitt Shell.

In 2009, Thomas was featured on the GospelChops Bass Sessionz Vol.1 project with Andrew Gouche, Hadrien Feraud, Damian Erskine, Janek Gwizdala, Anthony Nembhard, and Robert "Bubby" Lewis.

Thomas was raised in a musical family, the son of a bass guitarist. He began playing bass at the age of four years, independent of formal lessons (self-taught). When he was about 11 or 12 years old, he performed with Bar-Kays, playing solo bass guitar. At age 14, he played bass with the South Soul Rhythm Section, the band performed at the Porretta Soul Festival 2006. South Soul was a group of young musicians from Stax Music Academy.

Dywane Thomas Jr. (born August 6, 1990), also known as MonoNeon, is an American bassist, experimental musician and songwriter. He is known for his presence on YouTube playing bass guitar and known for being one of the last people to work with Prince. It was his eclectic artistry on the bass that first caught Prince’s attention in 2014. Mono and Prince performed a number of concerts at Paisley Park, and also recorded and release the track, “RUFF ENUFF.” MonoNeon was the last bassist Prince hired before he died. MonoNeon has become known for his speech to music multitracking videos and compositions. Thomas also played with Grammy Award-winning R&B artist, Ne-Yo, on his fourth studio album. He is a native of Memphis, Tennessee.