KSI (entertainer)

Olajide William "JJ" Olatunji (born 19 June 1993), better known as KSI (shortened from his online alias KSIOlajideBT), is an English YouTube personality, rapper, comedian and actor. After establishing himself on his YouTube channel, which,, has reached over three billion video views and more than 17 million subscribers as the 42nd most subscribed channel, he has also become well known for his music. KSI released his debut EP Keep Up in 2016, reaching number one on the UK R&B Albums Chart as well as charting in several other countries.

YouTube
KSI was the centre of a controversy following his actions at a Eurogamer event in 2012, raised after he appeared at the Xbox One launch party in London. With the reasoning of the controversy due to supposed sexual harassment of attendees of the event, Microsoft cut ties with the video game commentator, and he was banned for life from the Eurogamer Expo. A message from KSI's manager states "Sexism is not something he condones or wants to be associated with. He wishes to apologise for any offence the video of 15 months ago may have caused in the short time it was on his YouTube channel, references to it since and subsequently used by other people. In recent months, he has also been actively avoiding certain content seen in the distant past and wants to be judged on the great content and value he gives to brands and partners, without controversy."

In February 2013, KSI appeared on the video "KSI VS FIFA // The Record Slam" made by GWRomg in which he broke the previous world record for 'the most goals scored against computer' of 110 goals, by scoring 190 goals. As a result, his name appeared in the Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition (2013).

In October 2013, KSI signed with Maker Studios' sub-network, Polaris. On 19 October, he and five other gaming YouTubers formed a group called the Ultimate Sidemen (later shortened to just the Sidemen), which initially consisted of himself, Ethan Payne (Behzinga), Simon Minter (miniminter), Josh Bradley (Zerkaa), Tobi Lerone (TBJZL) and Vikram Barn (Vikkstar123). The group added a seventh member, Harry Lewis (wroetoshaw or "W2S" for short), in 2014. After defeating Virgin Gaming co-founder Zach Zeldin in a match of FIFA, KSI visited Las Vegas, where he discussed YouTube's launching of a paid-channel subscription project.

In early 2017, KSI stopped uploading videos to YouTube, later releasing a video in July stating that he was displeased with the direction YouTube seemed to be going. On 4 August 2017, KSI tweeted that he would be leaving the Sidemen group due to internal conflicts with fellow Sidemen member Harry Lewis. Shortly thereafter, he released a number of diss track videos criticising members of his then-former group, to which most of the members responded back with their own. Later that month on 15 August, KSI released a video in which he claimed that he was being deported from the United States (as he was staying in Los Angeles at the time) for receiving an incorrect visa, returning to group's private mansion which he co-owns, but was otherwise not returning to the group. However, by the following month he officially rejoined the Sidemen. This let to accusations that the Sidemen group manufactured their conflicts for the sake of getting views, as KSI and the other Sidemen gained a large number of views and subscribers upon uploading their diss tracks. Most notably, YouTuber Joe Weller released a diss track of his own criticising KSI and Sidemen for faking their "Sidemen war", which led to KSI and Weller attacking each other on Twitter. This cumulated in them announcing at an annual content creator-focused event called Upload (which KSI and some of the other Sidemen members founded) that they would be facing each other in a boxing match on 3 February 2018 at Copper Box Arena in London. During the announcement, the two YouTubers verbally and physically confronted each other, with KSI making fun of Weller's struggles with depression. Both released follow-up videos with KSI apologising for his remarks. In November 2017, KSI released a video discussing about the issue of whether his supposed fight with the Sidemen was real or fake, with him saying that "[t]he drama wasn't entirely real, but wasn't entirely fake either." (See the Boxing section below for information on the match.)

Music
In 2011, KSI branched out into music, mainly as a rapper. Starting out with fellow YouTuber Randolph, he released "Heskey Time", a rap song about Emile Heskey which was released on iTunes just before Christmas in 2011. The video features Heskey missing various chances on FIFA. Following the success of "Heskey Time", he began doing a segment on his channel called "Football Rap Battles", a video series which follows a similar vein to Epic Rap Battles of History. There, he and Randolph play the characters of famous figures from the world of football. Although it started off with raps featuring world footballers including Mario Balotelli and managers like Sir Alex Ferguson, one of them involves KSI as himself against Robin van Persie, hitting out at van Persie's acrimonious transfer from Arsenal to rivals Manchester United. He has also appeared in music videos with Droideka, directing and appearing in his music video for his song Get Hyper, whilst also collaborating with British rapper Sway, releasing two tracks with the London born rapper.

KSI released his first single as a solo artist on 23 March 2015 titled "Lamborghini", which features rapper P Money. The song was released under Sway's record label Dcypha Productions. On 29 October 2015, KSI announced his debut EP titled Keep Up. It was released on 8 January 2016 by Island Records. The EP's title track, featuring Jme, was released on 13 November 2015 alongside a music video released two days later. On 29 July 2016, KSI released "Friends with Benefits" featuring Dutch musical group MNDM. The song was released as a single to his second EP Jump Around, which was released on 28 October. KSI self-released his third EP, Space, on 30 June 2017, before releasing a fourth titled Disstracktions three months later. The latter became his second EP to top the UK R&B Albums Chart.

Amateur Boxing
On 3 February 2018, KSI competed in his first boxing match against fellow YouTube personality Joe Weller (KSI vs. Joe Weller) at the Copper Box Arena in Hackney Wick, London, winning the fight 1 minute and 30 seconds into the third round by way of technical knockout. KSI showed respect to Weller after the fight for being "way harder, way tougher than I thought," and praised him for his commitment to raising awareness on mental health issues. He then proceeded to call out American internet personality Logan Paul, his brother Jake Paul, and retired footballer Rio Ferdinand.

Other media
On 16 March 2015, KSI announced via his YouTube channel that he was releasing a book titled KSI: I Am A Bellend, called KSI: I Am A Tool in the United States. It is described by its publishers as “an all-out assault on the online universe”, as the book includes his history and controversies on YouTube. The book was released on 24 September 2015 in the United Kingdom and five days later in the United States. KSI did a tour supporting the book on 24 September 2015, ending on 4 October 2015.

In June 2015, it was announced that KSI, along with YouTube personality Caspar Lee, will star in a movie entitled Laid in America. It was released on 26 September 2016 and features other YouTube personalities including his own brother ComedyShortsGamer, Timothy DeLaGhetto and Josh Leyva.

Personal life
Olatunji's younger brother, Deji Olatunji, is also a well known YouTube personality known as ComedyShortsGamer. JJ and Deji both ranked number one and two respectively as "UK’s Most Influential Youtube Creators" by Tubular Labs in 2015. JJ is a supporter of football club Arsenal F.C. and has also appeared on several different shows including BT Sport where he played FIFA with England and then Arsenal midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.