40 Fun Facts About Anthony Fantano

Which rapper has a 0/10 and a 10/10 from Anthony Fantano, the latter with Kanye West in 2018?

Kid Cudi got a zero for Speedin' Bullet 2 Heaven in 2015, then a perfect ten three years later as half of the duo Kids See Ghosts.

Which Charli XCX album, with a plain lime cover, earned a perfect 10 from Anthony Fantano in 2024?

Brat spent five months in cover design, and Charli XCX said she picked an off-trend shade on purpose to suggest something was wrong.

Which Kendrick Lamar album, home to King Kunta, earned a rare 10 from Anthony Fantano in 2015?

To Pimp a Butterfly won the Grammy for Best Rap Album but lost Album of the Year to Taylor Swift's 1989.

Anthony Fantano signals a rave album review by wearing a flannel shirt in which color?

Yellow means a record he loves and red one he dislikes; a viewer spotted the pattern before Fantano did, so he kept it going.

Which California punk band got a 0/10 from Anthony Fantano for a 26-minute album in 2020?

Green Day's album Father of All is the shortest of their career, and Fantano's review tore all 26 minutes of it to shreds.

Anthony Fantano plays an Area 51 security guard in an animated video for which Lil Nas X hit?

Old Town Road got the cameo in the 2019 video for its remix with Young Thug and Mason Ramsey, a nod to the Storm Area 51 meme.

Which Canadian rapper posted his messages to Fantano after a 2022 joke video about a cookie recipe?

Drake shared the real exchange on Instagram Stories, complete with a mock review score for Fantano's existence; Fantano said he had no hard feelings.

Which Chance the Rapper project, his 2019 debut studio album, received a 0/10 from Anthony Fantano?

The Big Day ran to 22 tracks and 77 minutes, a length Fantano's review treated as an ordeal.

Which singer objected in 2024 after Fantano scored her album The Great Impersonator 1 out of 10?

Halsey said the album grew out of her health struggles; Fantano later answered that his criticism was aimed at the music, not her life.

Which 2012 Death Grips album was the first new release Anthony Fantano ever scored a perfect 10?

The Money Store was the trio's debut studio album, released after they signed to major label Epic Records in February 2012.

Which Virginia duo of brothers Pusha T and Malice earned a Fantano 10/10 for Let God Sort Em Out?

Clipse had not released an album since 2009; the brothers split in 2010, reunited in 2019 and returned with this one in 2025.

Which producer handled every track on Let God Sort Em Out, a 2025 album Fantano scored 10/10?

Pharrell Williams first discovered the duo in his native Virginia Beach and persuaded the two brothers to work in tandem.

Which experimental rock band led by Michael Gira earned a Fantano perfect 10 for To Be Kind?

Swans grew out of New York's no wave scene in the early 1980s and were re-formed by Gira in 2010, four years before this album.

Which Providence rock band earned a Fantano 10/10 for its final album, You Won't Get What You Want?

Daughters had broken up in 2009, and this 2018 comeback was their first album in eight years.

Kristin Hayter released Sinner Get Ready, a 2021 Fantano 10/10, under which stage name?

Lingua Ignota is Latin for unknown language; Hayter retired the name in 2023, making this her last album under it.

Which Oakland pop act, the project of Chrystia Cabral, earned a Fantano 10/10 for The Turning Wheel?

Spellling began in 2015, after Cabral watched a fellow San Francisco artist perform looped vocals and lost a close friend.

Which Japanese artist designed the cover of Kids See Ghosts, a 2018 album Fantano scored 10/10?

Takashi Murakami based the cover on Hokusai's Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, having earlier made the artwork for Kanye West's Graduation.

Kids See Ghosts, a Fantano 10/10, came out of Kanye West's 2018 sessions in which US state?

Wyoming hosted the sessions at a ranch in Jackson Hole, which produced five albums released week by week in the summer of 2018.

Which Kendrick Lamar song, from a Fantano 10/10 album, was chanted at Black Lives Matter protests?

Alright won two Grammys of its own, and Pitchfork later ranked it the best song of the 2010s.

Death Grips, makers of Fantano's first perfect 10, formed in 2010 in which California city?

Sacramento is where drummer Zach Hill, vocalist Stefan Burnett, known as MC Ride, and engineer Andy Morin formed the trio.

Which Australian former busker got a Fantano 0/10 for her debut album, Welcome to the Madhouse?

Tones and I topped the charts in more than 30 countries with Dance Monkey two years before the album Fantano panned.

Which British prog musician earned Fantano's rare NOT BAD rating for the album The Future Bites?

Steven Wilson, formerly of Porcupine Tree, got the off-scale verdict because the album beat Fantano's expectations.

Which rapper's album Starface drew Fantano's first NOT MUSIC rating over its use of AI?

Tyga admitted using AI to make parts such as the synthesizer and guitar tracks quickly, which drew negative reviews.

Which meme rapper answered a Fantano 0/10 with a diss track featuring the critic himself?

Yuno Miles made Fantano Diss with the critic, who conceded the argument on the track and had already guested on the album he panned.

Which 2024 Kanye West and Ty Dolla Sign album did Fantano call unreviewable instead of scoring?

Vultures 1 got a video titled unreviewable 1, in which Fantano said West's antisemitic views kept him from critiquing the record properly.

Julian Casablancas, who called Fantano's taste trash on a 2024 podcast, fronts which rock band?

The Strokes singer did allow that Fantano does solid work when he sticks to methodical analysis of how a record was made.

Ronnie Radke, whose 2024 defamation lawsuit against Fantano was dismissed, fronts which rock band?

Falling in Reverse's frontman was ordered to pay Fantano's legal fees when the case was thrown out in May 2025.

Which video game publisher sued Fantano in 2023 over his viral TikTok audio clip about pizza slices?

Activision had used the audio in an advert for custom Crash Bandicoot trainers, then dropped the suit within three weeks.

Jello Biafra, whom Fantano calls his political idol, sang for which San Francisco punk band?

Dead Kennedys split in 1986 after eight years with Biafra, whose work is what first got a teenage Fantano interested in politics.

Which presidential candidate did Fantano, a self-described leftist, endorse in the 2020 US election?

Bernie Sanders got the nod from Fantano, who has also called himself a free speech purist.

Anthony Fantano was raised in Wolcott, a town in which New England state?

Connecticut is also where Fantano earned his liberal arts degree in 2008, built around journalism, communications and political science.

Fantano qualifies most album scores with one of three words: decent, strong and which other?

Light joins decent and strong as the qualifiers he puts in front of every score except a ten and, usually, a zero.

Fantano declined an offer to host an album review show for which cable television brand?

Adult Swim never got the show: Fantano stayed on YouTube, where he had reached a million subscribers by the end of 2017.

Which magazine deleted its 2017 article about Fantano's meme channel after the two sides settled?

The Fader took the piece down in March 2018; several dates of a Needle Drop tour had been cancelled after it ran.

Besides YouTube and a website, Fantano's The Needle Drop streams live on which platform?

Twitch gives him a live outlet beside the reviews, weekly track roundups and video think-pieces he posts on YouTube.

Which magazine named Anthony Fantano among its 25 most influential creators of 2024?

Rolling Stone noted that his reviews pull in millions of views and draw reactions from the artists themselves.

Which newspaper's 2020 profile called Fantano the only music critic who matters if you're under 25?

The New York Times writer Joe Coscarelli credited him with bringing an old art to a new medium for younger listeners.

Which British comedian praised Fantano's 2016 albums list in the book Perfect Sound Whatever?

James Acaster bought more than 500 albums from that one year for the book, arguing it was the best year for music ever.

Fantano's The Needle Drop won the 2011 Beyond the Blog prize at which MTV digital ceremony?

The O Music Awards honored the meeting of music and technology; other winners included Spotify, Björk and Lady Gaga.

Fantano has kept to which diet for years, after first going vegetarian in his late teens?

Vegan baking even fed a feud: his 2022 joke video claimed a famous rapper had messaged him a cookie recipe.