Anthony Fantano is a music review blogger, vlogger and a host of The Needle Drop. [1] ^[1]

He was born and was brought up in Connecticut and spent his teenage years in Wolcott.

As fan of 'The Simpsons', hewanted to become a cartoonist since a very small age.

He says that he still enjoys cartoons from today such asAdventure TimeandRegular Show. He was introduced to independent music in the early 2000s which eventually influenced him to start The Needle Drop.

Fantano is a graduate of Southern Connecticut State University, where he studied political science, broadcast communication, and journalism.

He started his career in the mid-2000s as a music director for the Southern Connecticut State University college radio station.

In the early 2000s, he was inspired by a friend to write about music.

However, instead of writing reviews, he started by sharing his musical experience on the internet through casual blog posts.

During this time, he was also working at his high school pizza parlor to repay his student loan.

With the help of a professor, he bagged a podcast show at WNPR titled 'The Needle Drop'.

In 2007, he created a website by the same name to publish text reviews of songs and albums.

While he launched his first YouTube channel, 'thatistheplan', in 2007, it was not until 2009 that he experimented with video reviews for music.

In 2010, his review of Flying Lotus’ 'Cosmogramma' started to show in the 'Featured Videos' section for related videos on YouTube.

In the early 2011, he was interviewed at SXSW and was featured in an article on 'The Guardian'.

In 2012, he courted criticism after he had to write an article for Connecticut Public Radio to accompany an editor-created playlist titled '50 Failed First Impressions'.

This incident encouraged him to pursue a solo career as a music reviewer.

As he started to get recognition, he left his other jobs and decided to turn 'The Needle Drop' into his fulltime career.

Around 2014, with his growing popularity, he felt the need to properly archive his numerous reviews and hired a web designer to organize his website.

This was one of his first major investments to establish himself as a music journalist.

^[1]

On July 10th, 2011, Anthony released his review for Kendrick Lamar's first album, Section 80, and in it he says that the rapper sounds wiser beyond his years. He gives specific analysis for several concepts that appear in the album, including the idea of Lamar's message to his generation.

Anthony gives the album a positive review - a high 8/10 score.

When 2012 came around, he attended SXSW in hopes of catching some of his favorite artists. Of the artists he was looking forward to see while being at the festival, he was also looking forward to catching Lamar perform a set.

While at the festival, he attended three different sets where Lamar was expected to make an appearance and in the end never showed and dipped - disappointing Fantano.

As he stormed out from the back of the set during the festival accompanied with his girlfriend at the time, he hears a shout from someone who says: "Needle Drop Section 80 Review!".

While walking away from the venue in a back alley on 6th street, Lamar approaches Fantano.

Lamar expressed his gratitude for the review and the two exchange words.

Anthony Fantano and Kendrick would go on to have a correspondence.

Kendrick shares with Fantano that he will challenge him with the ideas he has for his next record.

That next record ended being Good Kid Maad City.

When he was very young his parents divorced.He

was quite overweight as a teenager, which was a reason why he got mocked a lot. He

later adopted a vegan diet and started to exercise.He is

married to an African-American woman named Dominique, whom he dated for many years before their marriage. She sometimes

appears on his YouTube channel to share her favorite songs with his audience.

According to a Twitter response made by Anthony, his last name is an Ellis Island misspelling of the authentic, "Fontana". ^[28]

In September 2011, he won the 'On The Rise' contest hosted by YouTube.

The next month, he received the 'Beyond the Blog' award at the 'MTV O Music Awards'.