Tonetta

Even for YouTube and the culture of the Internet, Tony Jeffrey, aka Tonetta, a divorced 50-something self-described "sexual deviant" from Toronto, is pretty weird. In what can only be described as performance art, Tonetta has created a series of YouTube music videos (featuring original songs) that are at once funny, visually engaging, and intensely disturbing. In his quintessential "Grandma Knows Best" video, Tonetta, (wearing only a black thong, choker, and body oil) delivers a funk-based music and dance performance that is inspired by the 2009 custody battle of Michael Jackson's children. Perhaps part of the reason his imagery and music cannot be "un-seen", as many have said, is because this is clearly not a case of weird for the sake of weird. Aside from the bizarre content itself, one of the more striking things about Tonetta's videos is simply the pure uninhibited abandon of someone making art exactly as they want without a hint of shame, no matter the extraordinary levels of idiosyncrasy reached. Black Tent Press has taken notice of this punk-like spirit, releasing four of Tonetta's albums as well as some of his pictorial artwork. Socialite Peaches Geldof has gone on record in Nylon Magazine praising Tonetta and is even rumored to have interest in co-producing a Tonetta documentary.