Anthony Fantano Responds To Accusations Of Racism & “Pandering” To The Alt-Right

Music critic and YouTuber Anthony Fantano, best known for his YouTube channel ‘The Needle Drop’, has responded to the controversy surrounding his now-defunct YouTube channel ‘thatistheplan’, after he was accused of racism and “pandering” to the alt-right.

In a new video responding directly to an article published earlier this week by The Fader, Fantano sarcastically calls the website’s “hitjob” on him an “incredibly well-researched piece of journalism”.

Speaking about “inaccuracies” in the article, Fantano says the “satirical joke videos” published on his ‘thatistheplan’ channel had a “pretty obvious liberal slant”.

Fantano also disputes The Fader‘s claims that he has aligned himself with “the YouTube right”, saying, “There’s nothing inherently right-wing about clowning rap fans, or memes, or edgy humour.”

Responding to The Fader‘s claim that he only pokes fun at black artists, Fantano says, “The writer fails to mention that I have actually harshly critiqued and clowned on white artists and rock musicians in the past… without a lick of irony or satire, which pretty much everything on ‘thatistheplan’ is shrowded in.

“…The article acts like I consciously gained this audience by being some kind of manipulative meme master, when the fact of the matter is they came to me.”

Fantano also accuses The Fader of changing the content of their article multiple times since its original publication, and disputes the amount of money they claim he would have made from videos on ‘thatistheplan’.

Watch his response in full, below.

https://twitter.com/theneedledrop/status/916471194081210368

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