About

Anthony Giovanni Blaise Grandinetti (born August 5th, 1999), better know as John Anthony, or The Villain, is an American independent rapper, songwriter, record producer and record executive from Dallas, Pennsylvania. He is the founder of his own independent hip-hop record label Villainous Records, which is parented by Chaos Music Group. He has currently released six studio albums, two EP's and five mixtapes under his label.

John Anthony began his music career in 2012 under the stage name “1 Dolla”, where he released his debut mixtape 1 Dolla later that same year. A year later, John Anthony changed his name to Exstazic and released two new mixtapes Homecoming EP (2013) and Live Evil EP (2014) under the new identity. After a year off, he finally restructured his identity again, going by the name John Anthonyand releasing his final mixtape —Double Standards EP (2016) — before the foundation of Villainous Records in 2019. After two years, John Anthony created his own label Villainous Records and released his first two studio projects that same year — Four Forty Four EP (2018-2019) and The Therapy LP (2019) — along with Villainology, Vol. 1 (2019), which is a compilation of mixtapes by John Anthony sorted into yearly volumes featuring unreleased songs and remixes that were cut from pervious albums.

John Anthony would go on dropping six projects a year later. His second studio album The Bad Guy Chronicles and his third studio album Unexplored, along with the Ride or Die mixtape and Stereo EP, all releasing in 2020. He also released The Therapy LP (Deluxe Version) to begin the year and the commercial mixtape series Villainology, Vol. 2 to close out the 2020 year. The more successful album out of the bunch came with The Bad Guy Chronicles, achieving higher streaming numbers and sales than any other John Anthony project, with the latter containing the hit single "Ballin". He also released the single "Sincerely Yours (Freestyle)" that same year. The song contains five beats produced by rapper Logic.

John Anthony's fourth studio album, Words Are Weapons + Words Are Weapons (Deluxe Version) (2021) and his fifth studio album Villaination! (2022) both achieved commercial success. He received a commemorative gold record plaque for Words Are Weapons in 2021 and another for Villaination! in 2022 for reaching over 100,000 streams worldwide. He also released his most streamed and popular song Hustlin' later that year. John Anthony also continued with the release of his annual mixtape series — Villainology, Vol. 3 (2021) and Villainology, Vol. 4 (2022). His sixth and latest studio album Success Story (2023) released in March and featured hit songs "Montana" and "IDFWY". The album has reach over 88,000 streams on Spotify and over 115,000 streams on all platforms.

Six months later, John Anthony and rapper J Mont together released "Give It To Ya" on September 15 as the first single from their collaboration album. The song samples "Sugar" (2009) by rapper Flo Rida. On October 13, John Anthony would release Heroes 2 Villains (2023), which is a collaborative album with fellow Villainous Records rapper J Mont. The fifteen-track album featured guest appearances from independent rappers Frizz, Tony Lonl3y and Phoenixx Rose. He ended the year with his annual mixtape series, Villainology, Vol. 5 (2023), which was delayed in release because of John Anthony's "Heroes 2 Villains" concert with J Mont on December 8th.

 Early Life

Anthony Grandinetti was born on August 5th, 1999 in Dallas, Pennsylvania and was raised as an only child. He attended catholic schools throughout his whole childhood and graduated from Holy Redeemer High School. After, he attended Luzerne County Community College for two and a half years before dropping out. John Anthony later moved to Winter Park, Florida, near Orlando, where he graduated from Full Sail University, earning a certificate in audio arts. His love for hip-hop started when he was ten years old and first heard rap duo OutKast on the radio. In a 2022 interview, he stated: "For me, originally it was classic rock on the radio... I remember one time I heard 50 Cent on the radio, I heard Kanye on the radio [and] I didn't know what rap was..." John Anthony said to Sac Juggalo of Hip-Hop Radar Underground. He started rapping a few years later at the age of twelve after being inspired when he received a copy of Get Rich or Die Tryin', an album by 50 Cent. He spent years releasing music under various stage names and took his hobby more serious in 2016 when he stuck with the name John Anthony.

Music career

2012-2014: Career beginnings, debut project

John Anthony began early in his career recording mixtapes yearly and selling physical copies to his friends at school. His debut mixtape was under the stage name 1 Dolla and was released on October 30th, 2012, featuring six tracks. He stated the idea of the stagename in a 2023 podcast interview: "I don't know the [exact] reason... I wanna believe it was because I was such a huge 50 Cent fan and I thought 'well I'm just gonna up him 50 cents'..." he mentioned. John Anthony recorded his debut EP with no microphone or music software, but instead used an old iPod where he would record both the beat and his vocals on an recording app. The production wasn't well put, leaving about 10 copies made but none were ever reported sold. One particular song from the album showed a rap group featuring John Anthony and four of his friends releasing a track entitled Ready For War. The song got Anthony and the rest of the group suspended from middle school. John Anthony would use Rap Rivals, an app that showcased rappers from around the world, releasing their music and going head-to-head in virtual rap battles. This app would help enhance his career and gain confidence in releasing music publicly over the next few years.

A year later, John released another album under a different name called Exstazic. The album was released on July 29th, 2013 and was entitled Homecoming EP, featuring eight tracks. There was roughly around 20 copies made and estimated only 6 mixtapes sold. This album was also ultimately scrapped 2 months later after suffering the same results as his first mixtape. Another year later, John followed up on another project called Live Evil EP, also featuring eight new tracks. Similar to his first two mixtapes, the EP failed to gain any attention. Once again, around 20 copies were made but only a handful were sold, leaving this album to get scrapped weeks later as well. To this day, all three mixtapes are removed and were never released officially into stores or major streaming services.

2015-2016: Inspirations and Pyramid Records

After the commercial failure to gain any attention with the release of his first three mixtapes, John Anthony quit making music for a brief time. He mentioned this later in a 2022 inteview saying: "Once 2016 happened, or '15 it might've been... I quit rap." he stated. A year later during the summer of 2015, he was inspired to return back to music after his friend showed him songs off the album Under Pressure, by American rapper Logic. Continuing on in the 2022 interview, he mentioned: "...And that's when a buddy of mine came over my house and showed me a dude named Logic... and when I heard him, I was like 'I gotta start taking this sh*t seriously...". Discovering Logic helped John Anthony not only get back to writing, but start learning the craft of hip hop by going back in time and listening to strictly classic hip hop. Music such as rapper LL Cool J’s 1985 Radio album and 1994’s Illmatic by rapper Nas were a few other inspirations. He spent the rest of 2015 studying the art of hip hip from it’s origins and learning different flows, rhyming-patterns and sounds that he can transport to his style, in helps on improving areas of his music. John restructured his career yet again after finally settling on the name John Anthony in 2016. The name takes his middle name, Giovanni, which is Italian for John, as his first name and Anthony, as his last. That same year, he released "Moving Fast" as the first single off of his fourth mixtape project —Double Standards EP. It featured seven tracks and was recorded and distributed locally by Pyramid Records in Avoca, PA. The mixtape gained better attention upon its release on March 26th, improving in streams from his first three projects. However, it never steered in the right direction as it failed with only approximately 9 copies sold out of 25 made. The production of the album was subpar, leading to a back and forth dispute between John Anthony and Pyramid Records, which ultimately had the EP taken down from streaming services. John Anthony spent the next few years working on his production as he started buying his own professional recording equipment. In the summer of 2016, he formed his own in-home studio called RYG Records (originally known today as Villainous Records) and installed FL Studios (known as FruityLoops at the time) on his computer.

John Anthony rapping in studio from 2019

2017-2018: Battle rapping, Hell on Earth (Freestyle) and Scrapped mixtapes

In 2017, John Anthony would participate in a small rap battle tournament in Scranton, PA. That same year, he joined his childhood friends rap tournament The Bunker, where local rappers were able to freestyle, preform or battle rap every Friday night. The tournament held around ten or more local talents. He eventually stopped joining after the event wasn't being taken serious and continued back working on his own music. A year later in 2018, John Anthony recorded a freestyle — "Hell on Earth (Freestyle)" — a short remix track featuring the instrumental to hip hop duo Mobb Deep. It was part of a three-track demo mixtape entitled The Four Forty Four Demo (Known today as Four Forty Four EP) and was released in the spring of 2018. The demo failed to gain any attention upon release on March 4 and was taken down a few months later. It would eventually be remastered a year later. In November of 2018, John Anthony was set to release his sixth mixtape — The Therapy EP (Known today as The Therapy LP) — which featured only six tracks but was ultimately scrapped weeks before its release.

2019-2020: Villainous Records, The Bad Guy Chronicles and more

On March 8, 2019, John Anthony reconstructed and founded his own record label Villainous Records. Four months later on July 21, John ended up re-releasing the single "Hell on Earth (Freestyle)" under his newly created Villainous Records label. At the time, the label was considered the promotional and distributional platform for John Anthony's music. Over 60% of the lyrics to "Hell on Earth (Freestyle)" were changed as more lyrics were added to the new freestyle, which ended up gaining some attention that the previous 2018 release failed at. The track's re-release showcased the lyrical penmanship, subliminal disses and puns which helped gained both positive and negative feedback. A few artists and producers gave their takes on the track, such as DJ and Producer Louis Flores, Hip Hop artist and member of rap group D12; Bizarre and Tommy Coster, a two time Grammy winner and co-songwriter for The Slim Shady LP. John Anthony would re-release the Four Forty Four EP in 2019 on streaming services, which originally dropped on March 4, 2018 and featured the newly published "Hell on Earth (Freestyle)" and two others. Upon release in 2019, many people compared John Anthony's flow and sound to a young Slim Shady. A few months later, he would go on to release two new singles: "Jump-In (Freestyle) on August 29, 2019 and the more success hit single "Time Will Heal" on October 20, 2019. John Anthony would release his debut album under his newly formed label entitled The Therapy LP on October 30, 2019. Unlike the EP that was set to release in November of 2018, the LP featured more tracks and fixed up the production mistakes and lyrics. This album would be considered as the first album under his new label Villainous Records, with the exception of the re-released Four Forty Four EP. The album reached just under 10,000 total streams on SoundCloud. A month later, John Anthony dropped the single "Backstab", which was a diss track against his former childhood friend and rapper Lil Cyko. At the end of the 2019 year, John Anthony released his first mixtape under Villainous Records. Villainology, Vol. 1 is the debut mixtape of the Villainology Series, featuring six unreleased tracks by John Anthony. This mixtape assembles scrapped music from late 2019, specifically from albums such as The Therapy LP and Four Forty Four EP.

Three months after The Therapy LP released, the album re-released as a deluxe edition, featuring ten more unreleased tracks. John Anthony quietly built off the momentum, as he would unexpectedly release Ride or Die, featuring seven tracks. The project is considered a mixtape rather an album as it was written and dedicated to his former girlfriend at the time. The mixtape has over 8,000 total streams, with the more popular track being a remix to Michael Jackson's hit 1979 song "Rock With You". John Anthony's style would change to a more mainstream, trap-like style with singles like "Run It Back" and "Slaughter Day", both releasing in early 2020. Nothing compared to the unexpected release of John Anthony's summer hit single "Ballin", which released on May 29, 2020. For the first time, it was available on all streamers worldwide and became an immediate success and fan favorite. The track itself has over 15,000 streams on Spotify.

June 26, 2020 marked the release date of John Anthony's second studio album The Bad Guy Chronicles, an album featuring twenty tracks and a two-sided genre of hip-hop music, with both styles of rap ranging in boom bap and trap. The album received views by both fans, producers, journalists, and A&R reps. Upon these views, it quickly became a battering piece as people would both praise and admire the album's grittiness along with ridicule and downgrade the album due to some of its lyrical controversial content. It was labeled at times by many as homophopbic, misogynisticand sexist in some cases. The album captured the attention of certain independent records labels but ultimately would be turned down. John Anthony's style was again compared to an earlier 2000's Eminem. John Anthony paired up with Chaos Music Distribution (Know today as Chaos Music Group or CMG) in July 2020. The Bad Guy Chronicles sold around 30-40 copies in its first month.

Dealing with the backlash in comparisons and lyrical content, John Anthony unexpectedly released his third studio album Unexplored, which released on August 7, 2020. The album released just six weeks after The Bad Guy Chronicles and didn't receive any promotional build upon release. The twelve-track album released a month later as a result to overlapse The Bad Guy Chronicles's critical reception. The album featured a wide range of different sub-genres of hip hop, from trap, boom-bap, alternative and conscious hip hop. One of the more popular tracks from Unexplored featured the song "33 Ways" — which shows John Anthony rap 257 words in 36 seconds, or a grand total of 375 syllables. The album also reached over 3,000 total music platform streams within the first two weeks of release. A month later, John Anthony released "Sincerely Yours (Freestyle)", a freestyle track featuring five different switch-up beats and samples produced by rapper Logic. John Anthony used the 7-minute duration to create an exposition of the grittiest and most frustrating factors in our warped 21st-century society; every line delivers introspective gold. From the corrupt nature of the music industry to the danger of anti-mask stupidity to fucked up abortion laws, John Anthony poetically goes for the jugular on many contemporary aggravators in the song. The single was released on major streaming services on September 17, 2020, and has over 25,000 streams worldwide.

Nearing the end of the 2020 year, John Anthony would release the Stereo EP. The project was considered an EP and celebrated the 35th anniversary of rapper LL Cool J's 1985 debut album Radio. The EP features five throwback-style hip-hop tracks, including the song "Stereo", which he tributes LL Cool J's hit single "I Can't Live Without My Radio". To end the year, John Anthony would release his third mixtape — Villainology, Vol. 2 from the Villainology Series, featuring nine unreleased songs by John Anthony. This mixtape assembles scrapped music from 2020, specifically from albums such as The Bad Guy Chronicles and Unexplored.

2021-2022: Words Are Weapons, Villaination!, Success Story and more

On February 19, 2021, John Anthony kicked off the year with a thirteen and a half minute-long cypher "400 Bar (Freestyle)", which features John Anthony rapping over seventeen different classic hip-hop instrumental. The freestyle started the road to John Anthony’s fourth album Words Are Weapons. Before announcing the album, on March 5, 2021, John Anthony dropped the albums only lead single "That Boy Different", which gained strong reviews. Shortly after on April 9, 2021, John Anthony released his fourth studio album Words Are Weapons, along with Words Are Weapons (Deluxe Edition). The album later received a commemorative gold plaque for achieving over 10,000 worldwide streams in its first two weeks. A month later, John Anthony would preform live for the first time in Orlando, Florida at Concert Crave Artist Showcase. Later in the year, John Anthony originally planned to release another album, which would have been his sixth studio album entitled Project 4:44, but ultimately never released. The album was scheduled for release on August 6, 2021 but was later scrapped and replaced with the hit single "My Life", which is a sampled-remix to Bon Jovi’s early 2000’s hit song “It’s My Life”, featuring Jon Bon Jovi in the hook. Produced by John Anthony himself, the song has over 50,000 streams worldwide. On December 3, John Anthony released his fourth overall mixtape Villainology, Vol. 3, and the third mixtape of the Villainology Series. It features fourteen unreleased tracks and remixes by John Anthony and assembles scrapped music from 2021, specifically from the albums Words Are Weapons and multiple unreleased projects.

On January 3, 2022, John Anthony announced his fifth studio album, Villaination!. The news of his fifth album was shared and revealed publicly on John Anthony and Villainous Record's social media accounts. The album was released on February 11, 2022 and featured 22-tracks, along with guest appearances from local artists and major features from Yukmouth and Bronze Nazareth. The artwork for Villaination! was inspired by and pays homage to rapper Kurupt’s debut album Kuruption! from 1998. The album has sold over 300 copies and has over 100,000 worldwide streams on all music platforms. On March 4, John Anthony announced that independent rapper J Mont has signed with Villainous Records. This is the first outside artist to sign with he label. J Mont was featured on three songs on Villaination!: "Midnight Cypher", "Been That Real" and "Look At My Life", before releasing his debut album Premonition on May 27, 2022. John Anthony executive produced and mixed the album and was also featured on "Squad Shit" and "Come Around", both songs appear on J Mont's debut album.

Over the summer, John Anthony released Hustlin’, a hard-hitting, heavy trap anthem. It has over 50,000 streams on Spotify and is widely considered John Anthony's most popular song. It has been featured on several hip-hop radio stations, such as Hip-HopNation on Sirius XM and Hot 97. It charted at number 233 on Upcoming100's Emerging 300charts, while also peaking at 79 on the Indie Hip Hop Radar Top 100. The beat was produced by record producer Timber, along with executive produced by John Anthony. Along with this, on October 22, John Anthony received commemorative gold record plaque in honor of his latest album, Villaination!. This being the second commemorative plaque he’s received, with earning one in 2021 for his album Words Are Weapons. John Anthony would finish 2022 with his annual end-of-the-year mixtape; Villainology, Vol. 4. This mixtape would be the fourth installment in the series and would feature remixes to from artists such as 50 Cent, Logic and Destiny's Child.

On March 24, 2023, John Anthony's sixth studio album, Success Story was released. It was supported by two singles prior to release, "IDFWY" and "Montana". The album features multiple songs that were sampled and produced by John Anthony. The album's identity was a throwback-retro, 1950's theme and was heavily inspired off classic gangster films such as The Godfather, Scarface and Goodfellas. The album released on the same day as the anniversary of the American film The Godfather (1972).

Six months later, John Anthony and fellow rapper J Mont together released "Give It To Ya" on September 15 as the first single from their forthcoming duo album. The song samples "Sugar" (2009) by rapper Flo Rida. The song has over 20,000 streams on Spotify. Three days later, they released the music video for "Give It To Ya", which currently has nearly 10,000 views on YouTube. On October 1, John Anthony announced Heroes 2 Villains, a collaborative album with Villainous Records rapper J Mont. The album was announced via John Anthony's Instagram, however, a duo album between the two was surfaced around for the better part of 2023. John Anthony and J Mont's duo album Heroes 2 Villains released on October 13, 2023, and featured independent rappers such as Frizz, Tony Lonl3y and Phoenixx Rose, while a majority of the production was handled by several different producers. The album marked as the final album released under Chaos Music Group, the parental music management agency for Villainous Records. On December 8, John Anthony and J Mont performed at the Sherman Showcase at The Sherman Theater in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania for their "Heroes 2 Villains Concert". The event also featured independent rapper Frizz as the shows opener.

On December 10, John Anthony and Villainous Records parted ways with their management team Chaos Music Group, making John Anthony and all Villainous Records artists and members officially independent. He ended the year with his annual mixtape series Villainology, Vol. 5, which released on December 15. Originally, the mixtape was set to release on December 1 but was delayed due to John Anthony and J Mont's "Heroes 2 Villains" concert that was be promoted heavily. He explained on X (Twitter): "#Villainology Volume 5 is still coming. Usually it would release today but due to the anticipation surrounding the [Heroes 2 Villains] concert next Friday, I decided to put the mixtape on hold." The new mixtape features ten songs, with multiple remix tracks to unreleased songs from John Anthony’s 2023 album Success Story. Some songs feature classic remixes to well-known artists such as Eminem’s “Cleanin’ Out My Closet” (2002), where throughout the remix he subsequently disses his ex-girlfriend from his 2020 mixtape Ride or Die, along with a remix to Jay-Z and Eminem's hit single “Renegade” (2002), where he and fellow rapper J Mont share a similar flow and style to the original song, to 50 Cent's “Wanksta” (2002), which is the third song John Anthony has remixed from 50 Cent’s popular debut album Get Rich or Die Tryin’ (2003), previously remixing to "Life's on the Line" in Villainology, Vol. 3 (2021) and "Don't Push Me" in Villainology, Vol. 4 (2022).

To begin the 2024 year, John Anthony had a featured performance at an independent artist showcase festival hosted by Concert Crave in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.