How superfan Monty G became Philly’s ‘#1 Hype Fan’
“This is a blessing for the city to have teams looking good and having us feeling good,” he said.
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Meet Lamont “Monty G” Anderson, a South Philly lifer and Philly’s self-proclaimed “#1 hype man and hype fan.”
• On being a hype man: “If I’m not yelling or saying something funny, people ask me if I had a death in the family.”
• Phantastic pheelings: “Being a fan, it’s a loving thing. It’s the love and appreciation from everybody that makes it good to be a Philly fan.”
His scooter was a gift from Eagles defensive end Brandon Graham. Jeremy Maclin once took his mom to dinner. And when Lamont “Monty G” Anderson woke up from a coma due to complications from COVID-19 in May 2020, it was get-well videos sent to him by Brian Dawkins, Swoop, and Graham that helped him pull through.
“I was in my wheelchair in my room and looking at the walker against the wall. I thought of Brandon Graham’s video. I fell back in the wheelchair two times, and on the third time I got up and got to the walker,” Anderson said. “The nurses came in and asked who helped me up. I said ‘I did and this video I got from Brandon Graham of the Eagles.’”
Anderson, 53, of South Philly, bleeds, breathes, and believes in the Eagles and all Philly teams. If there’s a game going on, he makes up a freestyle rap about it for social media, or he spits it live on Fox29, where he’s become a staple during broadcasts.
His wardrobe is almost entirely Philly fan gear, including his trademark Eagles hat, featuring a bird with flapping wings, and his Phillies cap, that’s got a tiny working Liberty Bell on the brim. Picking an outfit is always easy — Anderson just wears whatever team is playing that day.
“But sometimes I have everybody on all at once and rep all the teams at the same time,” he said. “I do it because I love the teams, I love the players, and they hype me up.”
Anderson’s absolute fandom has long captured the attention of the city’s athletes, fans, and TV producers, and with Philly fans capturing the attention of the world now, Anderson is in high demand (he had three other interviews scheduled when we spoke).
But as Philly famous as he is, Anderson said many still don’t know his story.
“People know me for the Eagles and flapping bird stuff but they don’t know about the rapping,” he said.
Anderson was a senior at South Philly High who beatboxed at house parties in the late ‘80s when he had to make a choice: play football for his school or pursue rap. He chose the latter and joined the Philly hip-hop group Tuff Crew at 17.
They recorded three albums and performed with artists like Public Enemy, Run-DMC, and Biz Markie before disbanding in 1992.
Anderson went on to do promotions for Power 99 FM and do security work. He has one grandson and three sons, one of whom he lost to gun violence in 2008 (”They caught the two guys and I punched one of them in the head in court and the bailiff pulled me out,” he said).
Anderson has always been an Eagles fan. In the early 2000s, he attended a rally for the team at City Hall in a green wig, air-brushed shirt, and an Eagles flag he’d fashioned into a skirt.
“Everyone else came with their regular Eagles jerseys looking regular,” he said.
A contest was held to see which fan had the best Eagles chant for their upcoming game against the Buccaneers. Anderson riffed off a popular Ludacris song.
“I said ‘Move Bucs, get out the way. Get out the way, Bucs, get out the way,’” he recalled. “The crowd went off and I was voted the number-one fan.”
From there, Anderson got work as a hype man revving up crowds at athlete signings and he began appearing in local commercials.
Up to then, he’d only followed the Eagles and Sixers (he once danced for the Sixers with a group called the Broad Street Beefcakes), but one day, he had an encounter with the Phanatic that changed everything.
“He don’t really say nothing, but on the down low he can talk and he said to me, ‘Why don’t you ever do nothing for the Phillies?’” Anderson recalled. “I said, ‘I don’t know baseball like that.’”
So he created a song called The Phanatic Dance, which he performed with the Phanatic at a game on top of the dugout.
Then Flyers fans started asking him why he wasn’t doing anything for them.
“I didn’t know names or anything but I rapped about orange and black, pucks and ice,” he said. “People loved it and said ‘Keep doing it and don’t forget about us!’”
Now, Anderson raps about all of Philly’s teams, sometimes all at once:
“Monty G the superfan yes you know I’m representin’. Talking about the five teams, huh, that keeps winning. Union, Flyers, my Phillies, my Birds, and the Sixers coming next, I’m sure you all heard … Let’s do it, let’s do it, and the fans going crazy. Philly is the best number one baby baaaby.”
But the Eagles still hold the biggest place in Anderson’s heart. In his two-bedroom apartment, where an entire wall is covered with photos of Anderson with athletes and celebrities, Eagles gear reigns king.
Anderson has an Eagles-themed lamp, shower curtain, bath mat, night light, toothbrush holder, trash can, bedspread, pillow cases, pot holders, toaster, apron, remote, clock, sneakers, curtains, rugs, and an Eagles basketball.
Eagles stickers are on his door, car, cane, and mobility scooter, which was a gift from Eagles player Brandon Graham.
Anderson still has lasting effects from COVID-19, including paralysis of his left side. When Graham saw him in a wheelchair at an event, Anderson said he told him “‘That don’t look like you.’”
“He said ‘You need to represent like you do,’” Anderson recalled. “I said ‘I know, but I can’t do any better than this right now.’”
A few weeks later, Graham invited Anderson to Eagles practice and surprised him with a four-wheeled scooter. Anderson couldn’t hold back his tears.
“I went to the Eagles pro shop and bought all the Eagles stickers to put on it,” he said. “Now people say ‘Damn! That jawn is a decent Eagles scooter.’”
It’s not the first time a player has gone out of their way for Anderson. Brian Dawkins stopped his car to say hi; LeSean McCoy gave him gift cards to hand out; and in 2010, when his sister’s house caught fire, the Eagles, Jeremy Maclin, and Modell’s gave his family a shopping spree.
Later that night, Maclin came to his family’s home in a Rolls-Royce and took Anderson’s mom out to dinner at Ruth’s Chris Steak House.
Yet despite his fandom, Anderson said he’s only been to one Phillies game and two Eagles games. He watches most games at Chickie’s and Pete’s in South Philly, where they keep a table reserved for him.
With all of Philly’s teams playing at the same time now, Anderson is hyped to see all of Philly as hyped as him.
“This is a blessing for the city to have teams looking good and having us feeling good,” he said. “We got all this violence, corruption, and carjackings, and we got an election coming up and we don’t know who to trust, but you can put that aside for a minute and be proud of your team and just love this city.”
