Anthony Fantano, a music critic who runs the popular "The Needle Drop" YouTube channel, has come under the spotlight after a video in which he was heard saying racial and homophobic slurs surfaced. On July 31, 2025, @AkademiksTV, the official news and updates X account of Livingston "DJ Akademiks," shared a 14-second video in which Anthony Fantano was heard saying:"...Who infamously called Ian a n****r f***ot, and now he just kind of quotes that to death. That dude clearly had a few screws loose, but Ian really had no problem with him putting him on blast to make him look ridiculous, which...""It is also clear I am quoting someone" - Anthony Fantano addresses the community after the audio clip in which he was heard saying the N-word and F-slur went viralOn August 1, 2025, Anthony Fantano took to X to address the online community about the viral post shared by Akademiks TV. At the 43-second mark of the video, the content creator admitted to having "some pretty lax views" when quoting others early in his YouTube career.Fantano said:"Early on in my YouTube career, I had some pretty lax views when it came to quoting the language of others. And my point of view was, 'What does it matter? It's not me saying it. I'm relaying a lyric or a sentiment or a point of view expressed by someone else. I'm even embarrassed to say that I don't think it was until like a few years ago that I actually changed and censored the text of this 2024 Death Grips review title. And, as you can see in the comments of this video, there's even a lot of discourse and jokes flying around about me not saying the title. And, at the time, this sort of thing left me feeling like this is more or less a moral grey area.Anthony Fantano claimed it was "clear" that he was "quoting someone" in the "tightly edited" video in which he voices his disagreement with people using racial and homophobic slurs:"I extended this attitude into other pieces of content I have made, like this one (an image of Akademiks TV's aforementioned X post appears), where it is also clear I am quoting someone, even in the tightly-edited state this clip has been presented in. And the reason I'm doing so is to voice disagreement with calling people racial and homophobic slurs as a bit, which is what the original content creator I quoted was doing. And he himself has since apologized for this whole era of his career."The 39-year-old later "took ownership" for quoting the slurs and issued an apology by saying:"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."DJ Akademiks calls Anthony Fantano a "typical colonizer" for his response to the controversyDJ Akademiks eventually reacted to Anthony Fantano's response to the controversy, labeling him a "racist" and "typical colonizer." While claiming that the latter was deflecting the situation by mentioning him, Livingston remarked:"U RACIST B**CH! Just apologize! How u deflecting mentioning me rather than taking accountability! U RACIST ! Typical Colonizer!!!!!!" DJ Akademiks wrote.Fantano replied by bringing up DJ Akademiks' January 2025 controversy, when he was accused of having inappropriate conversations with a 15-year-old Twitch streamer:"you’re using me to deflect from how you talk to underage boys, sir"This is not the first time Anthony Fantano has made headlines for controversial reasons. He garnered attention in February 2024, after Felix "xQc" slammed him for his review of Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign's Vultures 1.