Who is Anthony Fantano? Music critic comes under fire for allegedly laughing at Trayvon Martin’s death and saying the n-word in a viral video

Videos of Anthony Fantano allegedly using the n-word and laughing at Trayvon Martin's death resurfaced on social media on July 31, 2025. Fantano, popularly known as the face behind the YouTube channel The Needle Drop, is a 39-year-old music critic who has amassed a following online for his music reviews across various genres. The internet personality also describes himself as "The Internet's Busiest Music Nerd."

On July 31, 2025, several X accounts, including @AkademiksTV, shared clips posting videos and clips of Anthony Fantano's alleged questionable behavior. One clip shows him saying the words "n****r f****t" while quoting someone.

In another clip, Fantano appears on a livestream with three other men, where one of them can be heard saying, "F**k Trayvon Martin," followed by the others, seemingly laughing along. For the uninitiated, Martin was a 17-year-old Black teenager who died in a shooting incident in Florida in 2012.

At the time of writing this article, it is unclear when these events originally occurred or why they resurfaced on social media. Anthony Fantano has not yet commented on the clips.

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Anthony Fantano has 3 million subscribers on YouTube

According to his 2016 profile on Spin, Anthony Fantano was born in Connecticut in 1985. His parents divorced when he was young, and his love for music began during trips between their homes, when he would listen to the radio.

Fantano attended Southern Connecticut State University, where he studied political science, broadcast communication, and journalism. While at SCSU, he started working at the college radio station, which allowed him to explore new genres of music.

His professor helped him get an internship at WNPR while he was a student, where Fantano pitched the idea for a music podcast titled The Needle Drop. In his Spin profile, Fantano explained why the project was titled 'The Needle Drop,' saying:

“I wanted to have the vibe of sitting down, chilling and listening to a vinyl record. The idea of the show was to slow down, hang out, and enjoy the inner workings of this album that I’m going to be talking about.”

The podcast didn't gain much traction, so Anthony Fantano decided to switch lanes, shooting and uploading a video of his review of a Jay Reatard record in 2009. Following this, he continued this format of reviewing music on video and uploading it to YouTube, where he slowly gained a steady audience of music lovers.

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Exploring Anthony Fantano's other controversies

Anthony Fantano has faced his fair share of controversy as a social media figure. In 2015, his likeness was mistakenly used in a news report identifying a mass shooter involved in a terrorist incident. According to NME, Fantano addressed the situation in a YouTube video at the time, criticizing Australian news channel SBS for its mistake.

“I can’t believe it didn’t dawn on these people to do a reverse image search or even think that it was strange that I had a record collection behind me or that I don’t even look that much like the guy they were posting photos of until that point. I think it just says a lot about the current state of journalism, I guess,” he said.

In 2017, Fantano was accused of using his alternate YouTube account to promote alt-right sentiment. According to a report from The Fader at the time, he allegedly used his side channel, thatistheplan, to create content targeting feminist and Black artists.

Following the article's publication, Fantano reportedly deleted all videos from the alternate YouTube channel and canceled his tour at the time.

"His vocabulary took on a screechy, 4Chan-friendly slant — video titles from the past year include “pepe the frog triggers hillary clinton,” “I CHANGED MY GENDER CUZ DONALD TRUMP,” and “MEGA-CUCK SAYS POKEMON GO IS LIKE DOGFIGHTING.” He raged against SJWs and feminists, and, in video after video, treated black musicians as a punchline," the article read.

Anthony Fantano later denied the allegations mentioned in The Fader article and accused it of writing a hit piece about him. The article has since been removed from the publication's website following a settlement.

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As of now, Anthony Fantano currently has over 3 million subscribers on YouTube, with over 1.1 billion views and over 4700 uploaded videos. He has reviewed albums across various genres, including hip-hop, pop, metal, and rock.

His rating scale is from 1 to 10, and the critic often uses the color of his flannel shirts to signify the rating, with red for negative reviews, orange for mid-range, and yellow for positive reviews.

Edited by Shubham Soni