| KSI |
KSI/Career |
KSI/Gallery |
Documented article about the last decade of KSI.
YouTube career
KSI in 2011, The History of my Name
KSI created his first YouTube channel JideJunior in April 2008. Today, the channel has 20,000 subscribers. On the same date of the channels creation, KSI uploaded his first video called LOOKING THROUGH SPACE. The video is a school project he made with his friend Patrick.
After that video appeared on YouTube, KSI started uploading FIFA and rap videos onto the channel. KSI uploaded his last video onto the JideJunior channel in March 2009, later abandoning it in 2011.
Creation of "KSI"
On 24 July 2009, KSI officially made his official YouTube channel. At the beginning of his YouTube career, he only uploaded gaming videos to his channel (mainly FIFA and Modern Warfare 2). On 15 August 2011, he released his first vlog titled KSIOlajidebt Vlog's | The History of my Name In the video he revealed his face for the first time, and explained the meaning of "KSI". The video today has over 1 million views.
After that video, KSI continued to upload FIFA, but at the same time he uploaded more vlogs and sketches. His FIFA videos were also becoming more comedy-oriented, mixing various skits into the videos.
Creation of "KSIOlajideBT"
On 26 January 2011, KSI made his second YouTube channel called "KSIOlajideBT". The purpose of the channel was to solely upload gaming videos (in order to make the KSI channel a vlogging channel). KSI did not upload a video to this channel from early-2017 until 31 December 2018.
The Sidemen
- Main article: The Sidemen
On 29 October 2013, KSI creates The Sidemen with Miniminter, Behzinga, Zerkaa and TBJZL. The Sidemen were officially formed (as we know them today) once W2S and Vikkstar123 joined the group.
GudjonDaniel
Until 2013, KSI was good friends with fellow YouTuber GudjonDaniel. The two created a lot of videos together on both channels, KSI even created Daniel's YouTube channel on 9 April 2010. The two drifted apart after KSI realised Daniel was simply using him to promote his own channel. In a KickTV interview on Daniel, the interviewers asked Daniel if he plays FIFA with KSI. He replied with "Who the fuck is that?".
After this incident, KSI took to Twitter to express his opinions. The two stopped collaborating and Daniel ended up getting a lot of hate for many years until he quit YouTube a few years later. In early 2018, the two tweeted a picture of themselves together announcing that they made up and that the beef had officially ended. It had taken nearly half a decade.
Growth
As the Sidemen continued to grow, so did KSI. Before the group had formed, he was still an iconic online star in the U.K. and was notable for his "Get Hyper" and "Heskey Time" videos (both of which were all the rage in British schools at the time).
KSI had made/has been featured in many videos with all of the Sidemen. Prior to their formation, he used to make many videos with Simon (whom he has been friends with since Year 8), Callux and more. He was always the most subscribed member of the Sidemen; closely followed by W2S.
His most known video made with the Sidemen is CROSSBAR CHALLENGE, which currently sits at over 50 million views. He also made collaborations with a lot of other famous British YouTubers such as Caspar, Joe Sugg, Calfreezy and Callux. Today, KSI sits at 20.8 million subscribers, and over 5 billion views.
Around 2014, he made multiple videos for the sporting company Rule 'Em Sports, where he'd take part in various challenges and activities with other YouTubers and celebrities.
KSI Army
The KSI Army was the general name for the fans of KSI - especially towards the beginning of his YouTube career. This name was popular during KSI's first peak in popularity from 2009 to 2011 but has significantly decreased in usage in recent years. His current fans probably haven't even heard of the term.
Music Production
KSI branched out into "rapping" around the same time the Sidemen formed. On 26 October 2016, KSI embarked on his first European music tour, where he performed in the U.K., France, Germany, Netherlands and Belgium.
Due to certain fans complaining that KSI's music career had "taken over" his main YouTube channel, he decided to activate a VEVO channel. This has 3 videos and around 500,000 subscribers as of August 2017.
No Sleep
KSI featured on a single by British rapper Sway, titled No Sleep. The song reached number 44 on the UK Singles Chart. The music video for No Sleep was released on KSI's YouTube channel on 20 October 2013.
Lamborghini
On 23 March 2015, KSI released his debut single Lamborghini, which features British rapper P Money. The song reached number 30 on the UK Singles Chart, and remained his highest charting song until the release of Down Like That in November 2019.
Keep UP (EP)
Later on in 2015, KSI revealed that he was preparing to release his debut EP. The lead single Keep Up was released on 13 November 2015 and features British rapper JME. The song was originally scheduled to be released on 1 January 2016, but was brought forward due to the song's appearance on Now That's What I Call Music! 92. Keep Up peaked at number 45 on the UK Singles Chart. On 8 January 2016, KSI released his debut EP titled Keep Up. The EP reached number 13 on the UK Albums Chart.
In early 2016, KSI announced that he would be releasing his second EP, due to be released towards the end of 2016. The lead single Goes Off which features British-Ghanaian musician Mista Silva was released on 29 April 2016. However, the single failed to make an impact on the UK Singles Chart.
Friends With Benefits
KSI released the EP's next single Friends With Benefits on 29 July 2016. The song features Dutch musicians MNDM and peaked at number 69 on the UK Singles Chart.
Jump Around
A new single titled Jump Around was released on 16 September 2016. The song features American rapper Waka Flocka Flame and samples the song Jump Around by House Of Pain. However, the single failed to make an impact on the UK Singles Chart. The music video for Jump Around was the first of KSI's music videos to not be released on his YouTube channel; Instead it was released on his newly established VEVO channel. KSI released his second EP titled Jump Around on 28 October 2016. However, the EP failed to make an impact on the UK Albums Chart.
Events - 2017
Disillusionment with Fame
KSI did not upload any videos to any of his YouTube channels from February to June 2017. He also "blacked out" all profile pictures and banners across all his YouTube and social media accounts. He additionally took down videos worth over two billion views and deleted all of his Instagram posts except for one. This began to worry many of his fans, with some thinking he'd be diagnosed with a terminal illness or was suffering from depression.
KSI followed this up with a series of since-deleted tweets where he explained that he had come to dislike his "fame" and the special privileges he knows he gets on the grounds of being a "celebrity" and stated that he would no longer like to be called a celebrity and wants to become a more "normal person". He also tweeted a quote by Charles Darwin that says: "We stopped looking for monsters under our bed when we realized that they were inside us.".
In an interview with DramaAlert, KSI said he did all of this so he could "evaluate himself as a person" and stated that he that he "doesn't care about the fame or money" and that he wants to "cleanse himself" as a human. KSI had been completely inactive on all his social media until he uploaded a photo on Instagram on 6 May 2017 saying "Growth".
He was, however, occasionally seen in the other Sidemen videos, such as those uploaded by Miniminter and Behzinga. He also took part in the 2017 charity football match.
After his return, in Josh's Homegrown Podcast, JJ stated that he was tired of all the controversy and restrictions that come with the life of a YouTuber. JJ said he didn't like the state of the website and how people no longer made videos for fun. He traveled around the world when he was off the internet and claimed that he was "trying to evolve". Eventually, he explained how he no longer wanted to feel so "trapped" and would focus more on the reason he wanted to do YouTube in the first place, which was to enjoy making content.
Space EP
On 23 June 2017, KSI posted a new video, entitled "It's been a while...", implying that his return to YouTube is imminent. Alongside posting that video, he also tweeted out about an upcoming EP, called Space. It was released on 30 June 2017.
Four days later (27 June 2017), KSI posted another video, his music video for the song Creature. It's the only song that has been released from the Space EP so far. It was previewed in the "It's been a while..." video, as the song appears to be heard in the background of the video.
The description of the video states "for Alfie". Alfie is a fan of KSI and Deji who is living with bone cancer. KSI and his brother visited Alfie prior to the release of the song (and gave him a shirt). It is thought that the video is dedicated to him.
Sidemen War
Leaving the Sidemen
On 3 August 2017, KSI tweeted out that he was planning to leave the Sidemen. He followed this up with a YouTube video citing Ethan as his main reason for quitting. After having the blame put on him, Behzinga decided to release a disstrack against KSI named "Drama". The song was uploaded on 7 August. Out of nowhere, on 8 August, W2S released his own track against KSI named "KSI Sucks".
After a week, on 12 August, KSI finally released (with RiceGum) his own diss track against Behzinga called "Earthquake". On 13 August, KSI released his second diss track on W2S named "Little Boy". The drama quickly escalated until Behzinga released - on 18 August - his second diss track on KSI; responding to "Earthquake".
A few days later, W2S released his own second diss track called "KSI Exposed". KSI released another diss named "Two Birds One Stone", targeting both W2S and Joe Weller. It was the last diss track KSI made against members of the Sidemen.
NetNobody
On 20 August, NetNobody released his own diss track against KSI named "'Diss Track ED". Eventually KSI got in contact with NetNobody's ex-girlfriend who had used NetNobody and treated him horribly, making a collaborative diss track against NetNobody named "Adam's Apple". NetNobody released his own diss track against the two named "Bend the Knee". At the end of the video, NetNobody reveals that he entered the drama only so he could get his son back, because his ex doesn't let him visit the child for various of reasons.
Review of Disstracktions
At the end of "Adam's Apple", KSI revealed that he'd be compiling the disstracks into an EP called "Disstracktions". The EP was released in September 2017.
The EP Design
List Of Tracks
- Little Boy - (13 August 2017)
- Earthquake - (12 August 2017)
- Two Birds One Stone - (24 August 2017)
- Adam's Apple - (8 September 2017)
- Noob - (September 2017)
- Medusa - (September 2017)
Release of Transforming
On 15 September 2017, KSI released his new song "Transforming". In the song, KSI raps about everyone not understanding him and not letting him be himself.
Events - 2018
Release of Uncontrollable
On 31 January 2018, KSI released his new song ''Uncontrollable''. As the title says, KSI raps about no one can control him. It was basically a teaser of the boxing match against Joe Weller. The song was used for his ringwalk on the day of the boxing match.
Boxing Match
- Main article: KSI V Joe Weller
Events - 2019
Return To Second Channel
After over a year of not posting videos on his second channel, he posted an announcement vid on December 31 of 2018, announcing that he would return to posting regular content on his second channel.
Beef with MaximillianMus
Maximillianmus and he had a small beef in late January 2019, at the time Max released a song called "Oh Yeah Yeah" which throughout the song, repeated the phrase "Oh yeah yeah" I'm not gonna count, but let's just say, a lot of times. The song went viral and hundreds of videos comment sections were being raided by people spamming "Oh yeah yeah" on them, one of the channels that was affected by this was KSI. KSI tried to stop this, since he thought it was ruining YouTube, by starting "Operation Blackout" where you would blackout your profile picture, and just spam "STOP" on all YouTube comment sections being raided by "Oh yeah yeah" comments When he was doing a One Question Go video, Max managed to get in the server in time, and confronted KSI about Operation Blackout. The operation was a failure, so KSI surrendered and changed his profile pic to Max's except with a bandana temporarily, and that fixed his comment section, and after a couple months the meme died down. It is assumed that he and Max are now on good terms.
New Age Album
In 2019, he and Randolph started working on an album together called "New Age" that would have 10 songs on it, 3 of them being singles. The album was released on April 12, 2019 and reached Number 17 in the UK Albums Chart.
New Age Tour
Throughout May–July, he and Randolph went on tour to promote the New Age Album. They played most of the songs from the New Age Album, but also played a lot of other songs from KSI's other albums like Space, and Disstracktions too.
Boxing Match
It was revealed on September 3 that the KSI v Logan Paul rematch was taking place on November 9 in the LA Staples Centre. The fight, unlike last time, is a professional boxing match with no head guards.
The fight resulted in a win by split decision for KSI.
Press Conference
The press conference for the rematch took place on September 14 in the Gilbert Lindsey Plaza, LA.
Down Like That
On November 7, 2019, just 2 days before the KSI V Logan Paul Rematch was held, KSI released a new single titled Down Like That, featuring American rappers Rick Ross and Lil Baby and British musician S-X. The song was used for KSI's ring walk during his rematch against Logan Paul, with live performances done by Rick Ross and S-X. It entered the UK Singles Chart at number 17 and peaked all the way up to number 10, making it KSI's highest-charting single to date, outperforming his previous highest-charting song, Lamborghini, which managed number 30. A music video for the song premiered on November 22 on KSI's YouTube channel.
Events - 2020
Wake Up Call
- Main article: Wake Up Call
On January 31, 2020, KSI released a single named Wake Up Call featuring American rapper Trippie Redd.
Discography
Collaborative albums -
| Title | Details | Peak chart positions | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK |
UK R&B |
NZL |
SCO]] | ||
| New Age (with Randolph) |
|
17 | 1 | 75 | 40 |
Extended plays -
| Title | Details | Peak chart positions | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK |
UK R&B |
CAN |
NZL |
SCO |
US R&B/HH |
US Rap | ||
| Keep Up |
|
13 | 1 | 63 | 23 | 15 | 19 | 14 |
| Jump Around |
|
— | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Space |
|
— | — | — | — | 87 | — | — |
| Disstracktions |
|
31 | 1 | — | — | — | — | — |
Singles -
As lead artist
| Title | Year | Peak chart positions | Album | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK |
UK R&B |
AUS |
CAN |
IRL |
NZ |
SCO | |||
| "Lamborghini" (featuring P Money) |
2015 | 30 | 7 | — | — | 61 | — | 28 | - |
| "Keep Up" (featuring JME) |
45 | 7 | 78 | — | 90 | — | 40 | Keep Up | |
| "Goes Off" (featuring Mista Silva) |
2016 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Jump Around |
| "Friends with Benefits" (with MNDM) |
69 | 12 | — | — | — | — | 43 | ||
| "Jump Around" (featuring Waka Flocka Flame) |
— | — | — | — | — | — | 77 | ||
| "Creature" | 2017 | 100 | — | — | — | — | — | — | Space |
| "Little Boy" | 82 | — | — | — | — | — | 87 | Disstracktions | |
| "Two Birds One Stone" | 97 | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| "Adam's Apple" | 93 | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| "Uncontrollable" (featuring Big Zuu) |
2018 | 89 | — | — | — | — | — | 85 | - |
| "On Point" | — | — | — | — | — | — | 98 | - | |
| "Ares" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | - | |
| "Beerus" (with Randolph) |
— | — | — | — | — | — | — | New Age | |
| "Red Alert" (with Randolph) |
2019 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| "Naruto Drillings (Remix)" (with Offica) |
— | — | — | — | — | — | — | - | |
| "Down Like That" (featuring Rick Ross, Lil Baby and S-X) |
10 | 3 | — | 77 | 26 | 10 | 9 | - | |
As featured artist
| Title | Year | Peak chart positions | Album |
|---|---|---|---|
| UK | |||
| "Sweaty Goals" (as BlacknWhite) |
2012 | 68 | - |
| "No Sleep" (Sway featuring KSI, Tigger Da Author and Tubes) |
2013 | 44 | Wake Up (Sway EP) |
| "World Cup Song" (Joe Weller featuring Randolph and KSI) |
2014 | — | - |
| "Christian Bale" (Yogi featuring Casey Veggies, Knytro, Sway, KSI and Raptor) |
— | Burial | |
| "MAC-10 Flow" (Sway featuring KSI) |
— | - | |
| "Slow Motion"(Randolph featuring KSI) | 2018 | — | New Age |
Other charted songs
| Title | Year | Peak chart positions | Album | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK |
NZ | |||
| "Pull Up" (featuring JME) |
2019 | 94 | — | New Age |
| "Real Name" (with Randolph featuring Talia Mar) |
— | 38 | ||
Guest appearances
| Title | Year | Other artist(s) | Album |
|---|---|---|---|
| "Fine by Me" | 2015 | Randolph | Lost Cause |
| "Wanna Be" | Sway | The Deliverance | |
| "Got It" | 2017 | Kevin LaSean | Operation October |
| "Subzero" | 2018 | RIL | Livin' Sports |
| "Player One" | 2019 | P Money, JME | Money Over Everyone 3 |
Filmography
Film
| Title | Year | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Laid in America | 2016 | Duncan | Acting debut; leading role |
| KSI: Can't Lose | 2018 | Himself | Documentary |
| KSI: Can't Lose - Extended Cut | 2019 | Himself | Documentary |
Television
| Year | Show | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 5 Aside | Matt Clark | TV Mini-Series |
| KSI Demolished | Himself | Comedy Central UK's 5 Episode Series | |
| The Football's On | Himself | Episode 2.21 | |
| The 50 Funniest Moments of 2014 | Himself | TV movie | |
| 2015 | Project YouTube : The Sidemen | Himself | Short |
| Backchat | Himself | Episode : Backchat Looks Back | |
| 2016 | Pass the Pad | Himself | TV Series |
| 2017 | Saturday Mash-Up | Himself | Episode : Cel Spellman |
| 2018 | Walk the Walk | Himself | Short |
| The Sidemen Show | Himself | YouTube Red exclusive | |
| 2019 | 40 DAYS: KSI vs. Logan Paul 2 | Himself | 3 episode Mini-series by DAZN |
| Fight Week: KSI vs. Logan Paul 2 | Himself | 5 episode Mini-series by Matchroom Boxing | |
| Genius (Verified Series) | Himself | Episode : "Down Like That" Official Lyrics & Meaning | |
| BBC Sports Personality of the Year Awards 2019 | Himself | Presenter | |
| Note - Talkshow interviews are not included | |||
Soundtrack
| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Baywatch (Music From The Motion Picture) | Performer & writer of 'Touch Down' |
Gameography
| Year | Game | Type | Platforms | Developer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | KSI Unleashed | Action | iOS, Android | Endemol Shine Group |
| 2018 | BoxTuber | Sports | iOS, Android | Viker Limited |
Boxing Record
| Record Summary | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No. of fights | Wins | Losses | Draws |
| 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
| No. | Result | Opponent | Date | Level | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Win | Joe Weller | 3 February 2018 | White-Collar Amateur | Copper Box Arena, London, England, U.K. |
| 2 | Majority Draw | Logan Paul | 25 August 2018 | White-Collar Amateur | Manchester Arena, Manchester, England, U.K. |
| 3 | Win | Logan Paul | 9 November 2019 | Professional | Staples Center, Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
Publications
| Year | Book | Publisher | Publication Date | Language |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | KSI: I Am a Bellend | Orion Publishing Group | 24 September | English |
| I Am a Tool : How to Be a YouTube Kingpin and Dominate the Internet | HarperCollins | 29 September | English | |
| 2016 | Sidemen: The Book | Coronet Books | 18 October | English |