Anthony Fantano responds to xQc accusations over Kanye West review

YouTube music reviewer Anthony Fantano has responded to a backlash from Kanye West fans after calling his latest album “unreviewable”, with commentators online accusing him of hypocrisy.

West has released a collaboration with singer Ty Dolla $ign, called Vultures 1. The album has been released on a wave of controversy, with singer Ozzy Osbourne claiming West sampled a live version of Black Sabbath’s song 'War Pigs' without permission.

The review saw Fantano reference West’s behaviour over recent years. In that time he has regularly endorsed and spread antisemitic theories, including endorsing Adolf Hitler in a 2022 interview with fellow conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.

"At some point I think he realised how much he f****d up with all of that, so now he has to own this total dumpster fire he's created,” Fantano said on his YouTube channel.

"Even if [West] does genuinely apologise and change his behaviour past this point his public image is forever altered by all of this."

unreviewable 1www.youtube.com

Since the video was posted, some have looked to point out perceived hypocrisy regarding previous Fantano reviews.

Some pointed out that Fantano previously reviewed albums made by alleged killers including Lil Durk and Gucci Mane. Streamer xQc, real name Félix Lengyel, was the most prominent voice to challenge Fantano.

Speaking in a new video, xQc said: “When were these efforts when he was reviewing the f***ing albums and the f***ing things people were saying to rappers that kill people, dude? What do you think about the families that have f***ing dead people? When their guy says, ‘We f***ing blasted that fool in the f***ing head one tap with the Draco man?”

He added: “‘Pull up in [that] b*****, one tap that b**** a** in the f***ing head. What do the families feel like about him saying ‘Guys, don’t worry. It’s just one kill, guys. It’s the one tap, my bad guys. It’s just war. It is what it is; it happens in war.”

The streamer added: “If you’re gonna do it one way, you gotta do it both ways. If you’re going to stand tall, you stand tall across the board.”

Other commentators and social media users also pointed out that Fantano had previously reviewed the Norwegian Black Metal band Burzum, aka Varg Vikernes, who has influenced elements of West's new album.

Vikernes is known for crimes including two major arrests, and potentially a spree of infamous church burnings, although Vikernes only ever confessed to the stealing and storage of explosive material used in the arson of three churches.

His first arrest was for the murder of Mayhem founder Euronymous in 1993. Vikernes was also jailed for 21 years - of which he served 15. The second came in 2014 when Vikernes was found guilty by a French court of inciting racial hatred against Jews and Muslims on his blog in 2014. Rambling and detailed confessions that Vikernes doesn't want to be reproduced can be found on his Burzum website.

Fantano has since responded to the criticism of his Kanye review, taking to Twitter/X to have his say on the backlash.

He wrote: “Never said Ye is too terrible of a person to review,” he said. “It’s a strawman of my argument. My point is the well with Ye is so poisoned that you can’t acknowledge his anti-semitism and declining music quality without his fans smearing and gaslighting.”

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