RHONETTAHOT R.I.P

"rhonettahot has been terminated due to multiple or severe violations of our Community Guidelines" :(

The YouTube account of Rhonetta Johnson was tragically purged from the website recently. Rhonetta, infamous for her failed American Idol audition and literally nothing else, was using the account to document her bizarre life post-Idol as a truck stop prostitute, seemingly hitch-hiking her way around America. Hundreds of videos are now tragically lost forever, leaving only a dozen or so fragments scattered around the web.



"Rhonettahot" was camwhoring-as-an-art-form, serving both as a trashy, John Waters-esque video diary and a harrowing look into a disenfranchised woman's complete mental breakdown. Initially the videos (all usually under a minute long) were strange and alien but relatively light-hearted. Rhonetta, all dolled up in drug store purple lipstick and blonde fright wigs (Nicki Minaj eat your heart out), filming herself from the back of a truck or a seedy motel, ranting hilariously and angrily at the camera about how famous and beautiful she is. Sometimes we see glimpses of the bewildered truck drivers who get caught up in her path, all of whom seem both frightened and totally transfixed by her. And who can blame them? Regardless of actual singing talent, Rhonetta IS a fucking star - bursting with presence.



However as the months went on, it became clear that this lifestyle and hopeless obscurity was eating away at Rhonetta's mental state (even her videos were barely getting any views above 50 or so). The wigs got dirtier, the lighting got grim, Rhonetta's ramblings started to turn even more paranoid, incoherent and death-obsessed. "Somebody gonna get killed" she was fond of saying. "Big-time Hollywood stalkers" were constantly following her, the producers of Idol were allegedly trying to poison her at fast food chicken places and for a period she was obsessed with the concept of being murdered and her body dumped in the Mississippi river. Some videos simply featured her silently staring at the camera and chain-smoking, her face tear-stained and worn out, listening to Waka Flocka Flame (an oddly epic image). Even her various truck driver lovers were clearly starting to grow weary of her increasingly violent and destructive outbursts. Eventually she posted a comment on her YouTube account, pleading for help:

"Yall I need help.... This is maybe be the only time I am real with myself. But I am here today saying that I need help. I don't know how to pray so someone pray for me.I live from truck driver to truck driver... And that is the truth... It's by the grace of God that I am still Alive today...... I'm out of control..... Please help me someone...."
- Rhonetta Johnson

Shortly afterwards she released her final and most nightmarish video to date (luckily a video that remains online on her abandoned MySpace account):



This is Rhonetta's darkest moment and quite possibly her masterpiece. The soiled wig, the distorted rumbling, the insane smile, her face engulfed in mysterious darkness, the weird Fire Walk With Me-esque light illuminating everything - this appears to be Rhonetta sending a transmission from some kind of hell dimension. Even the original subtitle of the video "I PLAYED YALL THE WORLD IS MINE" is strangely foreboding. Which leads us to so many questions - how is it that Rhonetta, while apparently homeless and mentally ill, managed to maintain such an active YouTube account in the first place? Where does she get internet access? Who uploads them? Where do these videos come from? These videos have a strange telepathic quality, almost as if like The Ring, Rhonetta's brain is tapped directly into her YouTube account, sending out weird, barely coherent messages in hopes that anyone out there could help her out of her tragic life.

FUCK YOUTUBE and their ignorance. Rhonetta might never become the pop sensation she dreamed of but she has a quality and charisma that is beautiful and rare - strong, blindly, almost violently outrageous, strangely loveable. We hope she's safe and finds another outlet for expression soon. For now all we have is the memories.