Drake couldn’t resist poking fun at his longtime critic Anthony Fantano as the music reviewer faced backlash over his past use of the N-word.
The Toronto rapper took to his Instagram Story to join in the laughter, posting a close-up shot of Fantano’s face accompanied by a string of laughing emojis, making it clear he was enjoying the moment at Fantano’s expense.
Fantano has been under fire after old offensive remarks resurfaced, including a clip where he seemingly quoted someone calling him a “n****r faggot” during an online spat.
“In case you haven’t noticed, I’m getting torn apart on Twitter,” Fantano said in his response to the controversy. “The discourse seems to have reached a fever pitch that’s making a lot of people concerned and angry and even thinking I’m covertly a racist, bigoted person. Now, these are the same sorts of allegations that I have fought against and won before.”
“Early on in my YouTube career, I had some pretty lax views when it came to quoting the language of others,” Fantano admitted. “My point of view was: What does it matter? It’s not me saying it. I’m relaying a lyric or sentiment or point of view expressed by someone else.”
He continued, “It is also clear I am quoting someone, even in the tightly edited state this clip has been presented in. The reason I’m doing so is to voice disagreement with calling people racial and homophobic slurs as a bit, which was what the original content I was quoted was doing. He himself has since apologized for this whole era of his career. … The fact of the matter is, I could have and should have just censored myself while pointing this out.”
Fantano added that he now has to be “careful about who I talk to and what platform I appear on. Because in the eyes of the wrong person, any association or appearance can be read as a deep tie or an endorsement of an idea I don’t f***ing agree with.”
This statement also addressed a 2017 Spin article that called him out for interviewing several controversial, far-right figures on his channel in its early days.
“I’m gonna continue to do my best to make sure that I’m not sending across the wrong idea,” Fantano concluded. “Especially considering a lot of the music I review and endorse on a regular basis deals in some heavy and serious topics. Topics I would be completely in opposition to, were I a bigoted weirdo.”
Drake and Fantano’s feud actually dates back to 2022 when the rapper clapped back after Fantano trolled him by sharing a fake DM where Drake supposedly sent him a vegan cookie recipe.
“I know we don’t really see eye-to-eye about music and that you are not the biggest fan of most of my albums,” the fake message read. “But it is what it is, you know. Can always hope you’ll like the next one! But I’m not messaging you about your videos. I’m actually messaging you cause I found a really great vegan cookie recipe I’d love you to try!”
But Drake wasn’t laughing. He flipped the script and “reviewed” Fantano’s life, just like Fantano reviews albums.
“Your existence is a light 1. And the 1 is cause you are alive,” Drake wrote at the time. “And cause you somehow wifed a Black girl. I’m feeling a light to decent 1 on your existence.”
