Falling in Reverse’s Ronnie Radke ignites Twitter feud with The Needle Drop’s Anthony Fantano

10 February, 2023

Ronnie Radke

Falling In Reverse frontman Ronnie Radke has ignited a feud on Twitter with online music critic Anthony Fantano.

The pair’s war of words started after Fantano negatively reviewed the new Falling In Reverse single ‘Watch The World Burn’, which was released last month, on his YouTube channel The Needle Drop.

In a single round-up video posted on February 6, Fantano described the track as a “really bad rap-metal song where it kinda sounds like [the rapper] Tom McDonald but without the racism, and Eminem but without the talent.

“The bars are cringe and super terrible and difficult to bear. And kinda the metal transition it goes into toward the end of the track is gross and tacky as fuck. Yeah, I hope I don’t have to listen to this track too many more times before I end up in the grave.”

Radke responded on Thursday by tweeting that Fantano “is like the Perez Hilton of music critics, looks 25 years older than he is and nobody will care about him in 3 years.”

Fantano replied with two sets of comparison photos of Radke and himself, tweeting: “over the past decade, I objectively look like I’ve put on fewer years than Mr. Radke. and I’ve had fewer trips through the legal system as well. I think I’m winning.”

Radke spent two-and-a-half years in prison from 2008-2010 for battery charges related to his role in the death of an 18-year-old man in Nevada in 2006. He was also arrested twice in 2012, for alleged domestic assault and then for injuring two audience members at a show after throwing four microphone stands into the crowd. Falling In Reverse have consequently never played in the UK because Radke is unable to cross the border thanks to his criminal record.

The pair continued to trade insults. “The funny thing about the right pic as opposed to the blonde pic, the blonde pic is 5 years later than the right pic of me. HAHAHAHAHAHA YOU [WERE] BORN LOOKING OLD,” Radke said to Fantano, to which he replied: “You look like that after 5 years??? what’s your secret? cocaine?”

Radke replied: “Well truthfully the right picture was taken in 108 degree weather in an Arizona parking lot on stage. The other was taken 5 years later in a room you are literally 3 years younger than me.”

Fantano then said, “he admitted the gap between the pics is 5 years.”

Radke then continued to poke fun at Fantano, alleging that The Needle Drop’s online followers are “paid bots from India.. at least they better be hahahahahahaha.” He later added: “We all know what happens to mostly negative critic YouTubers, another YouTuber will make a video called ‘what happened to Anthony Fantano’ in 2 years tops.”

Fantano admitted to his followers that his feud with Radke was “nowhere near as cool as the Drake feud. I’ll admit it… I’ll do better next time guys.”

Drake revealed of his own accord back in September that he had sent Fantano hateful messages.

He posted screenshots on his Instagram story poking fun at the critic’s rating system – whereby he’ll give records a score from 1 to 10 with a prefix of “light”, “decent”, “strong” or somewhere in-between (ie. “a light to decent 5”) – by writing: “Your existence is a light 1. And the 1 is ‘cause you are alive. And ‘cause you somehow wifed a Black girl. I’m feeling a light to decent 1 on your existence.”

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