Anthony Fantano of TheNeedleDrop fame has addressed resurfaced clips of alleged offensive comments he made in the past, some of which DJ Akademiks shared via his ‘AkademiksTV’ account.
“In case you haven’t noticed, I’m getting torn apart on Twitter,” Fantano began his response, addressing the situation, as seen above. “The discourse seems to have reached a fever pitch that’s making a lot of people concerned and angry and even thinking I’m covertly a racist, bigoted person. Now, these are the same sorts of allegations that I have fought against and won before.”
In 2017, The Fader published a since-deleted article that called out some of the content on his second YouTube channel, titled thatistheplan. As Spin reported, the article attempted to outline Fantano’s political ideology and was met with a less-than-enthusiastic response from him, and he promptly took legal action. The article was later detailed, but it did highlight some of the problematic people that Fantano interviewed on the channel, including far-right YouTuber Carl Benjamin, aka Sargon of Akkad, and alt-right comedian Sam Hyde.
“I have nothing to hide,” Fantano continued, jumping straight into addressing one clip shared by Akademiks, seen below, in which he appeared to quote someone who called him “n****r f*ggot” during an online feud.
“Early on in my YouTube career, I had some pretty lax views when it came to quoting the language of others,” he said. “My point of view was: What does it matter? It’s not me saying it. I’m relaying a lyric or sentiment or point of view expressed by someone else.” One example he used was that he only censored the album title in the review of a 2014 Death Grips album, N***as On the Moon, a few years ago after receiving criticism.
“It is also clear I am quoting someone, even in the tightly edited state this clip has been presented in,” he said. “The reason I’m doing so is to voice disagreement with calling people racial and homophobic slurs as a bit, which was what the original content I was quoted was doing. He himself has since apologized for this whole era of his career… The fact of the matter is, I could have and should have just censored myself while pointing this out.”
He admitted that quoting the other content creator directly was “in bad form and unnecessary,” and he believes he could have gotten his point across without quoting such harmful and hateful words. “This clip may be new to you, but it’s actually almost 10 years old,” he said. “All I can do is take ownership of having quoted these words in this way. And obviously say that I’m sorry. Which, I am, in fact, sorry about this.”
He also directly played a clip that has been circulating on social media, which people suggested showed him and some friends laughing at the death of Trayvon Martin, the Black teen who was fatally shot by George Zimmerman in 2012.
“The way this clip has been presented is a lie,” he said after admitting that it does look bad, but is being shared disingenuously. “It’s been heavily edited, too. … In this clip that you saw, I am reading a super chat that was sent by a viewer, and the reason I’m jumping into reading it, is partially it is a dig at me. … It’s not exactly a secret that I’m an openly liberal vegan.” He then presented the clip unedited, in which one of podcast hosts is called a “moron” by Fantano for mixing up Trayvon Martin with someone else.
“With all that being said, I realized a long time ago that I really do need to be careful about who I talk to and what platform I appear on platform,” he said. “Because in the eyes of the wrong person, any association or appearance can be read as a deep tie or an endorsement of an idea I don’t fucking agree with.”
He then said, for example, he wouldn’t appear on a stream with someone like Akademiks, presenting a clip of the controversial streamer verbally sexually harassing a young boy. “People might understandably think I endorse the idea of sexual conversations with underage boys, and I don’t,” he said. “I’m gonna continue to do my best to make sure that I’m not sending across the wrong idea. Especially considering a lot of the music I review and endorse on a regular basis deals in some heavy and serious topics. Topics I would be completely in opposition to were I a bigoted weirdo.”
Akademiks has since responded by calling the video addressing the situation “a 7-minute yap.”
