Olajide Olayinka Williams "JJ"note Olatunji (born 19 June 1993), better known as KSI
note , is an English YouTube personality, musician, boxer, comedian and actor, as well as a founding member of the Sidemen, a group of British YouTube entertainers.
KSI pretty much became the face of the FIFA fandom in the UK during the early 2010s, as football (not soccer) is Serious Business for many people there, with his first popularity resulting from a "mini-series" in which he discussed what was wrong with FIFA 11 and what could be improved in the succeeding edition. Nowadays, he stands as the owner of the biggest individual YouTube channel in the United Kingdom, with over 21 million subscribers on his primary channel and over 2 billion views on his videos.
While KSI mainly uploaded videos to his primary channel for a long while, using his second channelnote to post content from a wider variety of games (often played with the Sidemen), his pursuit of a music career turned the main KSI channel into a professional hub of official music videos, singles and miscellaneous high-production-value content. His second channel, now updated more frequently, hosts fun and informal content; think of it as JJ the regular person, as opposed to KSI the superstar. Recurring content on this channel includes Try Not to Laugh (where he reacts and almost always fails to avoid laughing at funny videos), Well...That Was Weird (where he reacts to simply bizarre videos), and a regular series of him reacting to fanmade content on his subreddit (available here). In March 2021, he (alongside many other Sidemen) also started another channel dedicated to short highlights of videos he's been in.
As far as music goes, KSI's career began early in his YouTube days with a series of comedic FIFA-based songs made with his rapper-producer friend Randolph before doing guest verses on several songs by British rapper Sway. He released EPs between 2016 and 2017, and transitioned to full-length albums around the end of the 2010s, one of them a fully collaborative work with Randolph (New Age). As his discography has progressed, he has gotten more serious with his craft, expanding his hip-hop sound to work with influences from R&B, pop, and dance music, racking up collaborations with established UK and US artists, and seeing a considerable increase in public support of him as a professional artist as opposed to making "YouTuber music".
Another prominent career path KSI has taken is into the world of boxing. His first fight was an amateur fight on 3 February 2018, when he settled a months-long beef with fellow British YouTuber Joe Weller in the ring at Copper Box Arena, ultimately winning in what was one of the most-watched white-collar matches in boxing history. In the years since, he has fought six more opponents — Logan Paul (who he fought twicenote ), rapper Swarmz, pro boxer Luis Alcaraz Pinedanote , YouTuber FaZe Temperrrnote , pro boxer Joe Fournier, and pro boxer Tommy Fury. His current professional recordnote is 4-1-0-1, consisting of one split decision victory, three KO victories, a "no decision"note , and a loss by unanimous decision.note KSI is additionally the CEO of the boxing promotional company Misfits Boxing.
KSI also released an autobiography in 2015 titled I Am a Bellend (or I Am a Tool in the United States), co-starred in the 2016 direct-to-video comedy film Laid in America alongside British YouTuber Caspar Lee, served as the focus of two documentaries titled KSI: Can't Losenote and KSI: In Real Lifenote , and announced co-ownership of a hydration brand called Prime in 2022 alongside Logan Paul, following the two squashing their beef and becoming friends.
He can be found on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. He also has an official shop.
Discography:
- Keep Up (EP; 2016)
- Jump Around (EP; 2016)
- Space (EP; 2017)
- Disstracktions (EP; 2017)
- New Age (collaboration with Randolph; 2019)
- Dissimulation (2020)
- All Over the Place (2021)
KSI and his channel incorporates the following tropes:
- A-Cup Angst: A retired Running Gag of his was making fun of Emma Watson's breasts for this reason.
- Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: The seven-second challenge of JJ and Callux was recorded after getting a little drunk. It doesn't render them wasted or even noticeably inebriated, but it does show sometimes where they'll just fuck with each other instead of doing real challenges. However, the idiocy comes in when JJ winds up having to balance on a wobbly penny board. With his phone in his pocket...
- Alliterative Name: KSI's real name is Olajide Olatunji.
- Audience Participation Song: "Lamborghini", full stop. Just watch this Insomnnia 54 performance.
- A Taste of the Lash: "Slavery FIFA" and their family's version of the "Chubby Bunny Challenge".
- A Wild Rapper Appears!: KSI himself in the song "No Sleep". Kind of subverted because Sway also raps on the track.
- Battle Rapping: His Football Rap Battles series.
- Beginner's Luck: Anytime he ever plays a game for the first time with the other Sidemen, he has the tendency to win.
- Berserk Button:
- Bestiality Is Depraved: From "I'm On A Horse".KSI: I'll f**k a horse!
Deji: Um, that's bestiality.
KSI: SHUT UP, BITCH, I DON'T CARE, I JUST WANT MY HORSE ORGY! - Big Brother Bully: Of sorts to his brother Deji.
- Big "NO!": He does two when his white parents tell him that there is no chicken and instead there are fish and chips.
- As the camera zooms in on his eyes in this video.
- In "Slavery FIFA", Deji rattles off three really loud ones when his brother nearly scores.
- As the camera zooms in on his eyes in this video
- Book Dumb: As showcased in some cases.
- In a quickfire questions challenge, he somehow forgot that 7 - 2 = 5.
- In this game of Cards Against Humanity, he mispronounced "Pharaoh" as "Pharoha".
- And of course, the squirrel/Rolls Royce/anthropologist/waning incident in this Cards Against Humanity session.
- Well, considering how fast-paced some of these challenges are, JJ does not have time to think or analyze a question due to being quite impulsive. Give enough time, however, he CAN calculate the profitability and debt of a FIFA player as seen here.
- In a quickfire questions challenge
- Break the Cutie: In
Shock Dancing, Seana gets shocked so much she actually breaks down crying, and only then does JJ decide that enough is enough. - Broken Win/Loss Streak: Suffered his first loss to Tommy Fury on October 14th, 2023.
- Catchphrase:
- "Yo! It's your boy KSIOlajidebt!"
- "YOW!"
- "TOO GOOD!"
- "It is done!"
- "X has just scored against ya. WHATCHA GONNA DOOOOOOO?"
- "GOLASO GOLASO GOL GOL GOL."
- "SWEATY GOAL!"
- "GET YOUR TITS OUT."
- "GOOOOLLAAAAAAAASSOOO!"
- "HESKEY TIIIIIIMMMEEE!"
- “ALLOW IT, FAM!”
- Caught with Your Pants Down: In one of his Q&A videos, he catches his dad masturbating. He is surprisingly turned on.
- In "DAT INTRO", he walks in on Deji.
- Chainsaw Good: As seen in this video.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Have you seen his videos? If you haven't, take this for example.
- Cluster F-Bomb
- Cold-Blooded Torture: The Shock Dancing video, in which JJ and Seana repeatedly shock each other via dog collars while trying to play Just Dance 2014.
- Nothing Is Scarier: The thought of wearing a dog collar, knowing that it would shock you at any given moment...
- Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: His GTA Online vehicle colour was hot pink as seen in videos with the Sidemen, though he later switched to black.
- Comical Overreacting: Specialises in it.
- Contagious Laughter: A laugh so contagious that he laughs at his own laugh.
- Cool Car: Drives an orange Lamborghini Aventador with a custom license plate that has been given a partial black chrome wrapping, giving it a Tron Lines-style to it.
- Cool Shades: An iconic trademark of his.
- The Cutie: JJ's former girlfriend Seana.
- Defeat Means Friendship: Beat Logan Paul in a boxing match, then a couple years later, both would go on to partner up for a new sports drink called Prime Hydration.
- Determinator: And how. Best demonstrated in his fight with Logan. Despite being slightly physically inferior, he takes so much punishment from Logan until the latter tires out. Then JJ starts taking advantage, culminating in a draw.
- Digital Piracy Is Evil: Made a whole video dedicated to how upset he was with people pirating Laid in America. He compared it to a song he did with Randolph that was deliberately made for free to showcase how the movie was not meant to be consumed for free, also noting how many people that worked on the film were being fucked over.
- Downer Ending: Callux and JJ's seven-second challenge ends with Cal breaking his toe running into a wall, as well as JJ breaking his phone on the floor falling off a penny board.
- Fanboy: He loves Dragon Ball. How much does he love this show? He has a t-shirt of himself drawn Dragon Ball-style, made a song about Beerus, and has a Beerus chain worth 500K.
- Follow the Leader: His YouTube presence inspired his brother Deji to start a channel of his own.
- Friends with Benefits: He made a song about this trope with the same name.
- Funny Foreigner: He originates from Nigeria, and you can feel that African verve throughout his family.
- Fun with Acronyms: KSI is short for "Knowledge, Strength, and Integrity".
- Hair-Trigger Temper: When you're this hammy, there's a lot of things that you can find to be pissed off about. Just look at Berserk Button above.
- Heavy Sleeper: Due to the activities he does, he can fall asleep really quickly. His friends end up giving him amounts of jump scares just to wake him up at times or just pile things on top of him till he wakes up.
- Hell Is That Noise: KSI's high-pitched scream. (6:05-6:25)
- Hidden Badass: KSI's dad. If KSI is to be believed, his dad put out a fire while completely nude.
- Hidden Depths:
- He's started experimenting with rap, as seen in his appearances on Sway's "No Sleep" and "Mac-10 Flow", as well as his Football Rap Battles episode in which he went up against Robin van Persie. He's really seemed to establish his own independent style with his solo song "Lamborghini". JJ has also released an autobiography called I Am a Bellend (US title: I Am a Tool).
- In addition, he's co-starring alongside Caspar Lee in a feature film called Laid in America.
- Apparently, in one of his Q&A videos, his favorite band is Breaking Benjamin.
- The Hyena: Second only to Ethan in the Sidemen.
- Hypocrite: Calls out Joe Weller for being two-faced. Cue to JJ being two-faced to a two-faced Elliot.
- Hypocrite Has a Point: Snitching Elliot does make him look like a dickhead, but he was still right to do so.
- Hypocritical Humor: KSI constantly teases Deji for being a pussy, but HAVE YOU SEEN HIM PLAYING SCARY GAMES?
- I Just Want to Be Normal: A major part of his Artist Disillusionment in 2017, where he revealed that he no longer enjoyed the special rights he got as a "celebrity" that made him seem any better than anyone else.
- Insult to Rocks: After getting plain old Benzema in a 100,000-coin pack in "RAGE. Just Rage.", JJ calls it "dog shit" but then states that this statement would itself be insulting dog shit.
- Irony: Flies into rage because he was losing to MattHDGamer... all while wearing a “You Mad Bro?” T-Shirt.
- Jerkass: Has been accused of being very pompous and being very stingy about the amount of fucks he gives out.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Does take the time out to let his fans know that he appreciates them.
- JJ Must Not Win: Endures a lot of this from the Sidemen, especially in Grand Theft Auto V races.
- Keet/Large Ham: Easily the most energetic and hammy member of the Sidemen.
- Kissing Cousins: Has admitted to kiss one of his cousins on the lips when they were young. Both of them just felt weird out by it.
- Kubrick Stare: Part of his iconic rape face.
- Large Ham: See Cloudcuckoolander and watch the first ten seconds of the video.
- Literal-Minded: In some of his Q&A Sundays.
- One asked him to put a condom on his head, which he did... without even unwrapping it.
- Another asked him and Gudjondaniel to do Heskey's face. KSI drops a picture of Heskey on the floor and he and Gudjon hit it with giant dildos. Therefore, they did his face.
- The Merch: He does have a Beast clothing line. A small clothing line, but a clothing line nonetheless.
- Metalhead: You'd think someone like JJ wouldn't be a metalhead, right? Wrong! He admits he likes metal and he even jams to metal music during his exercising. He listens to bands like Red, System of a Down, Rage Against the Machine and his favorite being Breaking Benjamin.
- Mind Screw: The start of this video has him preparing for a big game by running, flying, and swimming in space before realizing that he can't breathe in space. He somehow goes to hell (literally), raises his hands, and is transported to his room. Even as he's narrating, JJ corpses and says that even he has no idea what the hell is going on.
- Multilayer Façade: Played for Laughs. In his most recent Q&A, he decides to remove his bandana, only to reveal that he has another bandana underneath.
- Naked People Are Funny: The state in which KSI's dad took on a house fire and won.
- Nightmare Face: "Nightmare" is stretching it, but his rape face is at the very least unsettling.
- No Indoor Voice: Oh yeah.
- No, You:
- In one of his Q&As, he was asked how he would react if he woke up and his family was white. We then got this exchange:KSI: Why are you white?
White parent: Why are you black?
KSI: Touché. - During his conversation with Evie, KSI is stunned when Evie tries to counter his insult with "No, you are".
- In one of his Q&As, he was asked how he would react if he woke up and his family was white. We then got this exchange:
- Once per Episode: At the start of all of his newer FIFA videos, there will be a quick ad for UT Cointraders, a place to get cheap and reliable FIFA coins.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: As "KSI" or "JJ", since "Olajide" is quite a mouthful.
- Pants-Free: KSI had a habit of recording videos with no pantsnote on.
- Primal Scene: In one of his Q&A videos, KSI gets a question about what he'd do if he walked in on his girlfriend cheating on him with Deji. It doesn't end well.
- Psychopathic Manchild: Usually this when he’s pissed while playing FIFA, or when he’s in a Q&A.
- Rage Breaking Point: Basically he reaches this whenever he starts losing/loses a wager.
- Refuge in Audacity: Any joke he makes regarding the fact he's black.
- Running Gag:
- If you say "touchdown" in front of him, expect a computer to get broken.
- He's also known as "that rather fast black man".
- At his shop, if you select on any item where he is modeling, it will say "Please note that the rather fast black man pictured isn't included. Sorry!"
- Apparently he can't read these words: Rolls Royce, anthropologist, waning, and squirrel.
- Discarding Van Persie almost everytime he gets him in FIFA.
- Scary Black Man: "Black maaaaaaaaaaaaaaan."
- Note that "Scary" comes from the running gags of rape-based humour with his rape face.
- Screams Like a Little Girl
- Serious Business: Football.KSI: THIS ISN'T JUST A GAME! THIS! IS! LIFE!
- Shirtless Scene: His "Say it, don't spray it" Vine.
- We also see him shirtless in one of his Brazil vlogs, after giving his jersey to a kid.
- Shout-Out: His song "I'm On a Horse" parodies The Lonely Island.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot
- Sound-Effect Bleep: Occasionally, but nowadays he's dropped the censors.
- Stuff Blowing Up: POINTLESS EXPLOSION!
- Tempting Fate: His "PACK OPENING FAIL" video starts with saying that he knows EA will come through on giving him Team of the Year FIFA packs, only to spend the rest of the episode trying and almost always failing to get packs to open.
- Tranquil Fury: "RAGE. Just Rage." ends with JJ getting so pissed off by FIFA 15 not giving him any TOTS cards despite the magnitude of 100,000-coin packs he opened, he is reduced to a stoic facade and very calmly throws his controller and trashes his room.
- Urine Trouble: In his "Hotel Water" video, he complains how his hotel charges £3.50 for water, so he drinks his piss... and promptly does a Spit Take.
- Verbal Tic:
- "Nevertheless."
- "Ladies and gentlemen."
- Why Won't You Die?: KSI to almost every Necromorph that... won't die. Especially to the Ubermorph.
- Word Salad Title: The moniker of "KSIOlajideBT".
- The "KSI" comes from the name of a Halo clan that he was in.
- "Olajide" is his actual given name.
- "BT" stands for British Telecom.
