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Anthony Giovanni Blaise Grandinetti (born August 5th, 1999), better know as John Anthony, or The Villain, is an American independent rapper, songwriter and record producer from Dallas, Pennsylvania. He is the founder of his own independent label Villainous Records. He has currently released eight studio projects under Villainous Records and three mixtapes.

Biography
John Anthony began his music career in 2012 under the stage name 1 Dolla, where he released his first 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 Anthony and 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 to release six projects a year later. The Therapy LP (Deluxe Version), Ride or Die, The Bad Guy Chronicles, Unexplored, and Stereo EP — all releasing in 2020. He also released 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 Logic.

John Anthony's next two studio albums, Words Are Weapons + Words Are Weapons (Deluxe Version) [2021] and Villaination! (2022), both achieving commercial success. He received a commemorative gold record plaque for Words Are Weapons in 2021. John Anthony also continued with the release of his annual mixtape series — Villainology, Vol. 3 (2021).

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 eleven years old and first heard rap duo OutKast on the radio. He started rapping a year 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.

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 recorded the 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: Improvement 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. A year later during the summer of 2015, he was inspired to return back to music after his friend showed him a couple songs off the album Under Pressure, by Logic. 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 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.

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 4th 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, Unexplored, and more.
On July 21st, 2019, John ended up re-releasing the "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 who is a 2X 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 4th, 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 before finally releasing The Therapy LP on October 30th, 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 his debut album under his new record 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 release his forth project under Villainous Records — Ride or Die, featuring seven tracks. The album was written about and dedicated to a former girlfriend at the time. The album 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 was released on May 29th, 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 10,000+ streams on Spotify.

June 26th, 2020 marked the release date of John Anthony's third 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, misogynistic and 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 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 fourth studio album — Unexplored, which released on Aug 7th, 2020. The album released a month after The Bad Guy Chronicles and didn't receive any promotional build upon release. The twelve-track album was released a month later as a result to overlapse The Bad Guy Chronicles. 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)" — an 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 17th, 2020 and has over 10,000 streams on major platform streamers. Nearing the end of the 2020 year, John Anthony would release his final studio project —Stereo EP. The project celebrated the 35th anniversary of rapper LL Cool J's 1985 debut album —Radio. The EP features five throwback-style hip hop tracks including "Stereo" — a song in which he tributes LL Cool J's hit song "I Can't Live Without My Radio". To end the year, John Anthony would release another mixtape — Villainology, Vol. 2 — the second mixtape of the Villainology Series, featuring nine unreleased tracks by John Anthony. This mixtape assembles scrapped music from 2020, specifically from albums such as The Bad Guy Chronicles and Unexplored.

2021-present: Words Are Weapons and Villaination!
Entering into 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 instrumentals. The freestyle started the road to John Anthony’s next album —Words Are Weapons. Before announcing the album, John Anthony dropped — "That Boy Different" — which was released on March 5th and gained strong reviews. Shortly after, John Anthony released his fifth 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 would release hit single "My Life" — which is a sampled-remix to Bon Jovi’s early 2000’s hit song “It’s My Life”, which features Jon Bon Jovi in the hook. Produced by John Anthony himself, the song has over 25,000+ streams worldwide. Ending the year, John Anthony released his annual yearly Villainology mixtapes —Villainology, Vol. 3 — 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 sixth studio album, Villaination!. The news of his sixth album was shared and revealed publicly on John Anthony and Villainous Record's social media accounts. The album was released on February 11 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 100+ copies and has over 70,000+ 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.

Personal life
In several of John Anthony's songs, he opens up on various personal issues from depression, accusations, addiction and suicide. In 2021, John Anthony released the single "Beautiful", which touches on depression and isolation, stating in the song — "and through I seem to be happy / when them curtains close, them dark clouds follow me sadly". John Anthony later addressed his constantly battles with OCD. He also opens up on his personal strained relationships in numerous songs. In 2018, John Anthony was charged with the accusation of mental and psychical abuse by his former girlfriend. Though the accusations were denied, Anthony was still penalized with a three-year restraining order. He opens up on those allegations in several of his songs such as "Abuser", "For The Better" and "Loveless".

In 2018, John Anthony was charged with disorderly conduct by his parents after he got into an altercation with his father. He states the incident in the song "Break" where he allegedly wanted to confront someone who he had tension with but his father intervened. In the song he states — "was so heated, wanted to fight so bad / that I shoved, pushed and even punched my own dad".

Artistry
John Anthony credits various artists as inspirations to his career. In a 2022 interview, John Anthony states 50 Cent, Nas, 2Pac, The Notorious BIG, Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, Eminem and Logic were all key inspirational elements to piecing his career together early on. He elaborates on his strictly classic hip hop collection of vinyls, CD's and cassettes. In an interview with Hip Hop Underground Radar, John Anthony stated, "When I first started out in 2012, Hopsin, Em (Eminem), 50 (50 Cent) was huge for me, Kanye (Kanye West) was obviously a big popularity and I think even an early Drake kind've got into there...". He also stated how he quit rapping in 2015 and returned back after being inspired by Logic and credits him for his reestablished love for hip hop, stating, "A buddy of mine came over my house and showed me a dude named Logic... so when I heard him, I was like 'I gotta take this shit seriously'... and that's when I said 'I gotta go back' [and study hip hop]". John Anthony elaborated that the same way he was inspired by hearing Eminem for the first time, early in his career, was the same way he felt after hearing Logic.

John Anthony has said that comic books and cartoons were huge inspirations in the creation of Villainous Records and "The Villain" persona. The name Villainous was inspired when Anthony was reading a comic book and stumbled across the word. The word came to life as he felt it perfectly reflected what people were labeling him at the time, a villain. He cites cartoon anti-hero's, or villain characters, such as Skeletor from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and Two-Face from Batman as early inspirations to the villainous ego. He also credits rap group Czarface, as well as MF Doom, as musical inspirations as both successfully combined the art of comic books and rap music together.

Inactive Albums

 * 1 Dolla EP (2012)
 * Homecoming EP (2013)
 * Live Evil EP (2014)
 * Double Standards EP (2016)

Studio Albums

 * The Therapy LP (2019)
 * The Therapy LP [Deluxe Version ] (2020)
 * Ride or Die (2020)
 * The Bad Guy Chronicles (2020)
 * Unexplored (2020)
 * Words Are Weapons (2021)
 * Villaination! (2022)

Studio EP's and Mixtapes

 * Four Forty Four EP (2018-2019)
 * Villainology, Vol. 1 (2019)
 * Stereo EP (2020)
 * Villainology, Vol. 2 (2020)
 * Villainology, Vol. 3 (2021)