The creative magic occurs on the second story of an average Levittown type of home that has been converted into a studio-style apartment in Croydon. The room is made up of plain white walls, still partially wood paneled, between an average tan carpet and drop tile ceiling that can be reached when standing on tippy toes. The furniture consists of a plain wooden dresser, coffee table, and a nightstand that sits beside a futon sofa. The only difference between this room and my high school hangout is the missing haze of smoke and stench of marijuana. If you can picture the cast of That 70’s Show hanging out upstairs, rather than Foreman’s basement, then you get the picture.
The resident: a 29 year-old entrepreneur with a style of his own. A black Villyn baseball cap tops his wardrobe comprised of khaki colored skinny jeans and a green-sleeved Philadelphia Phillies “2008 World Series” shirt accessorized with black gauges–nearly an inch wide in each earlobe. A unique, grungy, hip hop swagger. A Travis Barker/Mac Miller hybrid. He resembles a hard-core vape shop employee minus the pretentious ego.
This creative genius, is known as Tony Two-Step.
The man behind the crafty rap moniker is Anthony Fiorelli. A local hip hop artist and aspiring clothing designer. In a world where so few pursue their dreams, Fiorelli is always taking the risks that are associated with success. Fiorelli went from performing in rock and heavy metal bands in his high school years to becoming a solo artist in the Philly hip hop scene.
“You can’t rely on anybody but yourself if you want to get things done the way you want to get them done,” says Fiorelli.
In his journey to becoming a solo artist, he experienced a domino effect of tragic losses. As he was entering high school, Fiorelli’s mother died and he was sent to live with his grandmother. Half way through high school, Fiorelli was faced with another unfortunate tragedy, his grandmother passed away—forcing him to pack up and live with his father.
He admits that he was troubled during these years. He would act out through truancy, partying, underage drinking, at one point, he even got in trouble for vandalism. The culmination of these behaviors led to him getting kicked out of Bensalem High School and sent to an alternative school at the end of his sophomore year. After graduating from Middle Earth, Fiorelli started writing and recording music right away.
“It wasn’t as saturated as it is now with everybody [that] thinks that they’re a rapper,” he describes the hip hop scene in the early 2000s.
“I could shine a little bit,” Fiorelli continues, “I could express myself in a different way than acting out.”
The benefits of music are clearly evident to Fiorelli. “There are no boundaries on creativity,” he explains.
“It’s great to have an imagination still as an adult,” Fiorelli adds, “A lot of people lose that.”
In person, Fiorelli is a down-to-earth guy with a good sense of humor. Always appearing cool, calm, and collected, but still cracking jokes whenever the opportunity arises. On the microphone, he can only be described as a verbal contortionist or a linguistic acrobat. He has a charisma that is accentuated by his hyperactive energy which his whole audience feels when he’s performing. “Man, there is no father to my style,” Fiorelli jokingly quotes the late Ol’ Dirty Bastard. “I’m not really boxed in. It’s like an alternative/hip-hop mix,” he describes.
Fiorelli’s music is plastered all across the internet on sites like Youtube and SoundCloud. Tony Two-Step’s name is widely known in the Philadelphia hip hop scene and he has performed shows with more popular artists like Logic, Peedi Crakk, Dice Raw, Snow Tha Product, and Audio Push. Fiorelli has been pursuing his musical dreams for over a decade despite the difficulties of trying to make money in the music business.
“People aren’t really buying music like they were 10, 15, 20 years ago,” he explains.
Artists spend thousands of dollars just putting an album together and it is not guaranteed that they will ever get that money back. Fiorelli wishes that he would have put more money into his music when he was younger, “because I may be somewhere else now.”
To pay the bills, Fiorelli works full-time as a manager at Custom Apparel Company where he gets to use his skills in t-shirt printing that he has acquired over the years. Fiorelli is still writing and recording music, but he is considering putting it on the backburner so that he can focus on his own personal clothing line, Villyn Clothing Co. Villyn apparel is an urban, street wear clothing company with a style that resonates with the hip hop heads and skater crowds.
Jokingly, Fiorelli says, “I am a grownup now and I have to do grownup things.” He still plans on putting out music, but there may be a few changes in his priorities.
“I’m not giving up, I’m just being smart,” he explains.
Fiorelli plans on releasing a full length album by the end of the year and also has plans to shoot a couple of more music videos in that time.
His advice for young entrepreneurs is “to have money to put into it.” Fiorelli explains, “Nobody’s going to take you seriously if you won’t back yourself financially.” With a few regrets about not putting enough money into promoting his music, he hopes to do things differently with his clothing venture. Villyn is currently available for sale at www.villyn.bigcartel.com.
Fiorelli’s five-year-plan includes opening a boutique, expanding his clothing line beyond t-shirts and hats, and possibly going back to school to study graphic or fashion design.
“It would be awesome to just be able to live off of what I love to do,” he explains. His ambitions used to be for fame, but that isn’t why he continues to chase his dreams. “I’m in it to be able to express myself.”
Fiorelli stays connected with his community doing charity work, feeding the homeless, and getting involved with non-profit organizations like “The Freedom Project.” He came up with the name “Villyn” because he claims that “everybody has a villainous side to them,” but it appears that Fiorelli’s wicked side has been exterminated by a decade’s worth of musical expression.
Fear causes many people to abandon their ideas. The fear of failure, alone, deters many people from following their desires. Even though there is “fear” in the rushed pronunciation of “Fiorelli,” he is certainly a stranger to the emotion. It’s clear; he does not use the “Tony Two-Step” moniker as a mask to hide behind or as a supplemental persona. Tony Two-Step is the passion-driven artist that resides within Fiorelli himself.