| “ | Yo wassup it's ya boy KSIOlajidebt and today- | ” |
―JJ's intro | ||
| “ | Anyways it's been ya boy KSIOlajidebt, I'll see you guys in a bit, take care. peace. | ” |
―JJ's outro | ||
Olajide Olayinka Williams "JJ" Olatunji Jr.[1][2] (born: June 19, 1993), better known online as KSI (short for Knowledge Strength Integrity, formerly JideJunior),[3]is an English YouTuber, filmmaker, actor, musician, and professional boxer mainly known for his music, vlogs, boxing, and challenges with the Sidemen. JJ has two solo YouTube channels, KSI and JJ Olatunji (formerly KSIOlajidebtHD). He is also a current member of a group called The Sidemen.
KSI's main channel is the second-most subscribed YouTube channel from the United Kingdom, whereas his second channel is the 6th most subscribed YouTube channel from the United Kingdom.[4] He is also the most subscribed person of color on YouTube.
YouTube career
JJ created his first YouTube channel JideJunior in April 2008. Today, the channel has 108,000 subscribers. On the same date of the channel's creation, JJ 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, JJ started uploading FIFA and rap videos onto the channel. JJ uploaded his last video onto the JideJunior channel in March 2009, later abandoning it in 2011. However on September 10, 2013, he updated his 'Favorites' playlist, which to many leading that this is the last time he logged on to the channel. In newer videos on his current channel, he's stated that he forgot the password to the channel, and can't gain access to it anymore.
On July 24, 2009, JJ 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 August 15, 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". He stated that KSI meant Knowledge, Strength, and Integrity. The video today has over 1 million views.
After that video, JJ 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.
Apart from being a YouTuber, JJ is also a rapper, actor, and a boxer. JJ has done 6 music projects, which include four EPs (Keep Up, Jump Around, Space and Disstracktions), a collaboration album with Randolph titled New Age and Dissimulation, which became his first solo album.[5] JJ's song 'Touch Down' was used in Dwayne Johnson & Zac Efron's movie "Baywatch".[6]
JJ was the lead in the movie "Laid in America" which was released in 2016 and he has also done a documentary called 'Can't Lose' which was released in 2018. [7]
KSI has also written three books: KSI: I Am a Bellend, How to Be a Youtube Kingpin and Dominate the Internet and The Sidemen Book. [8]
So far JJ has had three boxing fights, one against Joe Weller and two against Logan Paul.[9] JJ won the fight against Joe Weller but KSI vs Logan Paul 1 was a majority draw. JJ won the rematch against Logan via split decision.
On 4 November 2019, it was announced that KSI had signed with RBC Records, under BMG Rights Management, in order to "take his music to the next level" and "further develop his music career in the US and internationally". On the same day, it was confirmed that KSI had started working on his debut album. On 5 April 2020, KSI confirmed that recording for the album had been completed.
On May 22, 2020, JJ's released his debut studio album Dissimulation, which charted number 2 on the Official UK Albums Chart and number 1 on the Official Irish Albums Chart.
KSI Army
The KSI Army was the general name for the fans of JJ - especially towards the beginning of his YouTube career. This name was popular during JJ's first peak in popularity from 2009 to 2011 but has significantly decreased in usage in recent years. His newer fans haven't heard of the term. He posts Reddit videos on his second channel where he gets bullied by his fans and says he gets bullied by 1 million people on a daily basis.
The Sidemen
- Main article: Sidemen
JJ helped form a group called the Sidemen alongside some of his closest friends. The group consists of 7 famous UK YouTubers - KSI, W2S, Miniminter, Vikkstar123, Behzinga, Zerkaa, and TBJZL. They are all good friends who regularly make videos together and have created a commercial brand from their name. The Sidemen, as a group uploads on two channels - Sidemen and MoreSidemen. From 2018, they have uploaded a video on every Sunday on the Sidemen channel under the banner of "Sidemen Sunday". They also post content 3 times a week on the MoreSidemen channel.
The group has also done a YouTube Original series consisting of 7 episodes that were uploaded on the Sidemen channel on June 19, 2018. Episode one is free to watch whereas the other 6 episodes are paid.
Sidemen have also hosted their own events which include three Charity Football Matches, two Upload Events, and two boxing matches, all of which were massively successful.
Discography
Keep Up EP
Keep Up is the debut extended play (EP) by KSI. It was released on 8 January 2016 through Island Records. The EP features guest appearances from JME, Tiggs da Author, Lunar C, Nick Brewer, Randolph, Youngs Teflon, Sway and Scrufizzer. The EP charted at number 13 on the UK Albums Chart. The EP spent a total of five weeks on the UK R&B Albums Chart, debuting at number 1. The EP also charted at number 19 on the Billboard US R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Chart, number 14 on the Billboard US Rap Albums Chart, number 63 on the Billboard Canadian Albums Chart and number 23 on the RMNZ New Zealand Albums Chart.
The EP's title track, "Keep Up ", which features British grime MC JME, was released on 13 November 2015, followed by a music video two days later which has 40 million views
Space EP
On June 23, 2017, JJ 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 June 30 2017.
Four days later (June 27, 2017), JJ 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 JJ and Deji who is living with bone cancer. JJ 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.
New Age
KSI performing on stage on his tour
On April 12, 2019, JJ released an album with his friend Randolph called New Age. The album received positive reactions and charted no.13 on Official UK Albums Charts, no.1 on UK iTunes, and no.1 on the Official UK R&B charts. One of the songs from the album - "Pull Up" made it to Spotify’s official “Hot Hits UK” playlist (the biggest UK playlist on Spotify) and debuted #94 on Uk's Official UK Singles Charts
To promote the album, JJ and Randolph went on tour to in May-July across UK and Europe. They played most of the songs from the New Age Album, but also played a lot of other songs from JJ's other albums like Space, and Disstracktions too.
Dissimulation
On November 4, 2019, it was announced that JJ had signed with RBC Records, under BMG Rights Management, in order to "take his music to the next level" and "further develop his music career in the US and internationally". On the same day, it was confirmed that JJ had started working on his debut album. On April 5, 2020, JJ confirmed that recording for the album had been completed.
JJ released his debut studio album Dissimulation. It was released on May 22, 2020, through RBC Records, under BMG Rights Management, and a deluxe edition of the album was released three days later on May 25, 2020. Before its release, JJ says that he will go bald if Dissimulation gets number 1 on the "official charts". The album debut number 2 on the Official UK Albums chart and number 1 on the Official Irish Albums Chart.
The album features guest appearances from Offset, Lil Pump, Smokepurpp, Swarmz, Tion Wayne, Jeremih, Trippie Redd, Aiyana-Lee, Rick Ross, Lil Baby Official 4PF, S-X, AJ Tracey, Rich The Kid, Randolph, and Crypt.
The album was supported by the singles "Down Like That ", "Wake Up Call ", "Poppin ", "Houdini " and "Cap ".
Personal life
JJ was born in Watford, Hertfordshire, England and raised by Yinka & Jide Olatunji (who are of Nigerian descent) and, when first starting YouTube, lived with his parents in Watford alongside his brother, Deji. Olatunji can be considered partly responsible for the start of Deji's YouTube channel as they shared a sibling rivalry and used to appear in each others' videos.
JJ's overconfident and crazy personality means he sticks out in the FIFA YouTube community, and the humor in his videos often show the FIFA community's frustrations at the DEA and the FIFA games themselves. He is also very well known for his constant joking about his race as well as other issues that are known in society.
He used to date vlogger 'Seanyxxx' (better known as Seana), but broke up with her in 2014.
JJ lives on Edgware Road in northwest London
Fictional characters
JJ has his own cast of fictional characters that often show up in videos, most notably Sidemen Sunday, but also in some of JJ's videos.
- Babatunde: Babatunde is a poor, uneducated boy who lives in the Jungle somewhere in Africa.He has also out ran a cheetah to get some water which made him the fastest man on earth.Babatunde is JJ's most popular character, as he always pleads for water and hunger during in the middle of a video or challenge with The Sidemen. The character was privileged to rap in the song from JJ called 'Houdini'.
- Folabi: Folabi is an evil host who has an enjoyment of torturing The Sidemen and their friends with punishments. They can range from embarrassing moments too painful moments.He hates misspelling words which angers his and punishes the person who misspelled it. According to "SIDEMEN FAMILY FORTUNES ", Folabi lives with Tribes. He's also learned the YouTuber Callux how to drive.
- Sir Theodore III: Sir Theodore III is a wealthy critic with afro hair and a suit. He has so far only made 2 appearances on Sidemen Sunday.He is a 5 star chef.
- BlindMaster69: BlindMaster69 is a blind YouTuber. He made only one appearance on JJ's second channel, where he reads 'fan mails' (nothing was written on these mails, and imagined the messaged instead), which later leads him to commit suicide. The name originates from Avengers: Endgame; Thor's online username was named NoobMaster69 and had become viral in the gaming industry.
- Adamulla/HelpMeGetGood: Adamulla is an online gamer from Nigeria who plays Fortnite with random people online. He weirdly gets a pleasure staring female Fortnite skins' bottoms.
- Tola: Tola is a kind, maybe too kind taxi driver who only made an appereance on "Trying To Be a Taxi Driver ". He was pranked into nearly killing a kidnapped body.
- Oluwasegunfuminitotonicavalry: Oluwasegunfuminitotonicalvary is a supposedly a wealthy "business man". According to him, his name can be translated by "The Lord Has Conquered My Pussy, At Calvary". He also insists that he's not talking about the pussy cat. Being one of first JJ's characters, he shows the audience "How To Be Rich in Ultimate Team" by a technique (which is "not a scam") named "The Duplication Glitch" which consists of clapping twice to get the game's best players. All he needed back is the viewer's EA account name & password and "probably" his "bank account details". His e-mail address is 419NigerianPrinceEA@hotmail.com. He's probably in jail right now, since he threatened to rape anyone who doesn't use his "glitch".
- Count Blackula: Count Blackula is a vampire who lives in a dungeon. He first made an appearance in a Sidemen Sunday, where the members of the Sidemen were supposedly teleported by Count Blackula to the dungeon, and were given the chances to hide, mocking the on-going 'Hide & Seek' series by the Sidemen.
Boxing matches
KSI vs Joe Weller
On February 3, 2018, JJ competed in his first boxing match against fellow YouTuber Joe Weller at Copper Box Arena in Hackney Wick, London, winning the fight 1 minute and 30 seconds into the third round by a TKO.
KSI's outfit for the fight
JJ had the upper hand throughout the fight but Joe stood his ground, until the third round in which JJ was officially declared the winner by the referee.
At the end of the fight, different Sidemen members entered the ring, congratulating JJ when it was determined he had won the fight. JJ showed respect to Weller after the fight and praised him for his commitment to raising awareness of mental health issues.
The fight was a massive success, drawing 1.6 million live viewers, 21 million views within a day, and over 25 million over the next several days, becoming the biggest white-collar boxing event of all time.
JJ then proceeded to call out Logan Paul and Jake Paul. Jake instead chose to fight JJ's brother, Deji. However, Logan Paul accepted JJ's challenge and the fight was confirmed to take place on August 25, 2018 at the Manchester Arena.
KSI vs Logan Paul
On the weekend of February 24, 2018, it was announced that the Paul brothers would be fighting the Olatunji brothers (JJ and his younger brother Deji) in a boxing match, with the matches divided between relative ages (the elder brother KSI vs. Logan Paul in one match and the younger brother Deji Olatunji vs. Jake Paul in another match). Jake Paul was the fan favorite to go against JJ, but Logan stepped in to go against JJ, which left Deji to go against Jake Paul.
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KSI vs Logan Paul at Manchester Arena
The boxing matches took place on August 25, 2018, at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, United Kingdom.
Unlike the KSI vs. Joe Weller boxing match, this event was a pay-per-view ($8 [US]; £6 [UK]) to watch online on YouTube.
One judge scored the fight in favor of JJ and two judges scored a draw, resulting in a majority draw.
The fight sold out the Manchester Arena and did 1.3 million PPV buys and was labeled as "the biggest event in YouTube history" and "the largest ever amateur boxing fight". Taking the sum of all the videos on KSIvsLogan channel, the event so far has got 107M views.
KSI vs Logan Paul II
The KSI vs Logan Paul rematch took place on November 9, 2019 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California.
KSI being announced as the winner
The fight was promoted by Eddie Hearn the cash boy of Matchroom Boxing and it was aired on DAZN in the United States, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Span, and Brazil, Sky Sports in the United Kingdom & Ireland and Fite TV in rest of the world.
The bout was scheduled for six three minute rounds in the cruiserweight division, with both fighters making their professional boxing debuts.
As a professional event, only fighters with professional boxing licenses, and no other YouTubers, were allowed to participate; this decision was met with contention from some in the YouTube community who were hoping to see others participate in what was originally a 'YouTube' event.
Logan's main coach for this fight was two-time heavyweight champion, Shannon Briggs while JJ trained under up-and-coming professional boxer and UK's top prospect Vidal Riley and Jeff Mayweather, uncle of Floyd Mayweather Jr.
The fight was attended by various celebrities such as Justin Bieber, Wiz Khalifa, Rick Ross and Lil Baby.
JJ won the fight via split decision and rejected the offer for the third fight thereby ending the rivalry and leaving victorious.
Controversies
Eurogamer incident
JJ was banned for life from the Eurogamer Expo (known today as EGX) in 2012 due to allegedly verbally harassing attendees for one of his "awkward in public" videos, a series where he purposely used to be awkward while interacting with the public to get a reaction out of them.
After the incident, Microsoft cut all ties. JJ subsequently apologized "for any offense 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" and stated his desire to move on from the incident and be "be judged on the great content and value he gives to brands and partners, without controversy.
Channel blackout
In 2017, JJ blacked out all of his social media accounts, including his YouTube channel. He deleted most of the channel's videos, going from over 1,100 videos to only a bit over 100. He also had 3 billion views, but since dropped to 1 billion due to privatizing over a thousand of his videos. JJ for around four months hadn't uploaded a single video, which decreased his channel growth until his return.
He expressed that the reason he did that was that he wanted a break from YouTube and wanted to do other things in life and be a better human being. In an interview with Keemstar, he said he felt the best he ever had in his life due to his decision and he could've deleted more videos that he thought didn't fit, but couldn't due to various reasons.
In June 2017, four months after his last video was uploaded, he uploaded a video stating that he would be returning to making videos. A week later, he uploaded a music video for a song called "Creature". On July 23, he talked to his YouTube audience for the first time where he said that he left YouTube because he wasn't enjoying it anymore and he wanted to start making content he enjoyed rather than content which is trending or what people want him to do as he did when he started YouTube. He explained that he did not like where YouTube was going, mainly shown by longer videos for high revenues, and was glad for the people who understood where he is coming from and said he would return again soon.
The video received a lot of likes and views in a short amount of time and the channel's subscriber and view growth skyrocketed once again following the announcement.
A few months after his return, he retrieved all of his deleted videos and received all of his views back, now nearing 4 billion views. This has caused some people to believe he left YouTube, along with The Ultimate Sidemen for a short time, to take a vacation, promote his new songs and get his channel more attention.
Sidemen war
On August 3, 2017, JJ tweeted out that he was planning to leave the Sidemen. He followed this up with a YouTube video citing Behzinga as his main reason for leaving. After having the blame put on him, Behzinga decided to release a diss track against JJ named "Drama". The song was uploaded on August 7. On August 8, W2S released his own track against JJ named "KSI Sucks".
On August 12, JJ released (with RiceGum) his own diss track against Behzinga called "Earthquake". On August 13, JJ released his second diss track on W2S named "Little Boy ". The drama quickly escalated until Behzinga released - on August 18 - his second diss track on JJ; responding to "Earthquake", Which KSI removed it this year.
A few days later, W2S released his own second diss track called "KSI Exposed". JJ released another diss named "Two Birds One Stone ", targeting both W2S and Joe Weller. It was the last diss track JJ made against members of the Sidemen.
Beef with NetNobody
On August 20, NetNobody released his own diss track against JJ named "'Diss Track ED". Eventually JJ 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.
Feud with Quadeca and Dax
JJ called out both Quadeca and Dax for being worse than him at rapping. Quadeca then responded with a full diss track called "Insecure" and Dax giving small hints at JJ in his track "Killshot Freestyle ". JJ then replied with his diss track called "Ares" dissing both Quadeca and Dax. Dax then later appeared in Deji's diss track against JJ called "Unforgivable" with the information given to him by Deji. However, JJ refused to make a diss track back at Deji and instead tried to solve the situation behind the scenes.
JJ and Quadeca squashed their beef over a game of FIFA with both being interested to work with each other in music in the future. Miniminter later confirmed in his What's Good Podcast that the reason why JJ called out Quadeca in the first place was to make him famous, which he did. Quadeca then ended up being part of JJ's album "New Age" with the song "Roll the Dice" with Randolph, a song which Quadeca also performed live on the London show of JJ's New Age tour.
However, JJ's beef with Dax continued on twitter after Dax made multiple tweets challenging JJ to a boxing match. JJ then responded in a video saying he is ready to fly Dax out from LA to London in a first-class flight, pay for the 5-star hotel charges with an Addison Lee ready with Dax's name written on it just so he can spar him. After many back & forths, Dax backed out from having a spar with JJ and claimed in a podcast that he was only using JJ for clout. JJ still occasionally pokes fun at Dax in some of his second channel videos.
On June 23, 2020, on Genius' channel, JJ claimed that he won't stop "clowning" Dax.
Feud with MaximillianMus
MaximillianMus and JJ had a small feud 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". 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 were affected by this was JJ. JJ 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 JJ about Operation Blackout. The operation was a failure, so JJ surrendered and changed his profile pic to Max's except with a bandana temporarily, and that fixed his comment section, and after a couple of months the meme died out. It is assumed that he and Max are now on good terms.
Feud with Deji
The feud between Deji and Randolph spilled over onto a brother beef between JJ and Deji when JJ reacted to both Randolph and Deji's diss track and affirmed the truth of Randolph's disses whilst going at Deji as well as his parents for exposing his private bank account. Deji then responded with a video saying that JJ had taken Randolph's side and it was an unfair beef as he felt outnumbered. Deji then went on saying that he never gotten a girl pregnant (something Randolph mentioned in his second diss track), but then commented that JJ had, giving even more bad vibes between them. The beef then escalated with Deji tweeting out that JJ had blocked him and JJ then tweeting "get rid of negative delusional people, even if they are family", although this was deleted shortly after.
Deji then made a full video calling out his brother for preferring his friends over family and stated that JJ had a god complex. JJ immediately tweeted that he loved his brother and made a video apologizing for certain things. Deji then uploaded a full diss track titled "Unforgivable", with Jallow, Dax, and Crypt. Some of the disses were calling out the fact that JJ had gotten a girl pregnant, though it was made before JJ's video apologizing to certain things, and Deji uploaded the diss track to keep things fair for the people featured in the diss track. The apologetic tweets and video by JJ were deleted shortly after. Deji then proceeded to go on the Logan Paul podcast (despite JJ telling him not to) and called JJ manipulative and his friends (The Sidemen) fake and only having JJ's back on the surface, but not truly.
On Christmas day, JJ came to visit the family, but there were disagreements in their conversation, which resulted in a fight between him and Deji. JJ claimed on Twitter that Deji kicked him out while his parents just stood there and watched, with Deji threatening to call the police if he didn't leave. Deji tweeted that JJ wanted to smash his computer and make him delete the diss track. Deji later stated that JJ attacked their mum and insulted both of their parents.
Later that day, Deji made another video titled "My Bro", calling him a bully, manipulative, and attacking and making their parents cry, but the video was later deleted due to subscriber loss. As a result, Deji lost thousands of subscribers from the drama with his brother, due to him uploading more videos talking about the situation. JJ then finally responded to one of Deji's video and disproved every point Deji made.
On January 6, 2019, Deji uploaded an apology video to JJ for his actions, and he deleted the "Unforgivable" diss track, thus "ending" the beef.
However, on May 2, 2019, the brother beef was reignited, when Deji made the diss track that was thought to be deleted, public again on YouTube.
On May 25, 2019, Deji released a video titled "bye." In it, he explains all the problems he has with his brother, including violence in videos, JJ sleeping with a girl that Deji really liked, JJ taking Randolph's side over Deji's during the Deji vs Randolph war, JJ giving Randolph sparring footage to embarrass Deji, JJ's behavior on Christmas, and sending hate towards Deji on JJ's channel, even though Deji asked JJ to not mention him anymore. Deji even talked about him suffering from the psychical abuse and suicidal thoughts, as a result of the latest drama. He also called JJ out for forgetting their Mum's birthday. JJ started to lose subscribers on both of his channels. JJ responded on Twitter saying he didn't care about the subscribers lost and asked his fans if they ever encountered Deji, to message him.
On June 3, 2019, JJ finally responded to Deji with a video titled "Ending it All ". JJ debunked all of Deji's claims towards him and showed Deji's manipulation and hypocrisy, he did also apologize to Deji about violent videos and sleeping with the girl Deji had a crush on, claiming he didn't know she knew Deji. The video caused Deji to lose subscribers and JJ to regain his subscriber loss. The next day Deji uploaded a video titled "moving on", where Deji stated that the beef was "over" and that he would keep things private with JJ.
However, on June 18, 2019, Deji uploaded a video titled "i can't do this anymore ", where he came forward and said he's suffering from mental health and calls JJ out for lying about not knowing the girl he slept with. He later has a mental breakdown and begs people to stop seeing him as a "bad guy". The next day Deji went live on twitch and told his viewers that he finally agreed to attend therapy with JJ and said he would take some time off the internet to focus on getting better mentally.
It is assumed that the feud was later solved behind the scenes after Deji voiced his support for JJ in the rematch against Logan Paul. In November 2019, KSI revealed that their feud was settled, stating that "brothers fight and there's always gonna be a situation where, because we're in the public eye, everything gets blown out of proportion".
Transphobic slur
On October 4, 2020, during one of the SidemenReacts video's about which one was the plastic surgery liar, JJ spotted one of the people, and didn't realize that the person was a transgender and after finding out from the person in the video he said. "that chick has a better beard than me" As a result, Twitter tried to cancel him for the transphobic slur, in which KSI responded back with an apology, which he said that he didn't know that it was a slur and that he would use the term 'Transgender' instead from now on.
Feud with Bryce Hall
KSI was doing a mukbang with Miniminter and for the final question by a fan was for the YouTubers to predict some of the outcomes of the YouTube vs TikTok boxing event. They discussed the big three fights when discussing the Austin McBroom vs Bryce Hall, KSI said “I think Austin will win that. Bryce thinks he’s sick but he’s not”.
Hall will responded on Twitter, claiming he would beat him in a fight. “KSI just said he would fuck me up in the ring,” he said. “I wouldn’t want to ruin the fight you’ve been dodging with Jake just because you lost to a TikToker. After I beat Austin, we can talk, buddy”. KSI responded to Hall saying, “You’re literally easy work. Who do you think you’re talking to?" The exchange continued when Hall listed three points. "First, he said accused KSI of being “scared” of Jake Paul. Then, he claimed he only beat Logan Paul by points due to a “shitty call” before ending it with a jab about his weight, calling him “fat”. KSI responded again with three points of his own. First, he insisted he’s “not scared” and has been “busy smashing music, dropping an album, and selling out arenas”. KSI reminded Hall that he “still won” and is “still undefeated” and claimed he would “still fuck [him] up easily” regardless of his weight.
Hall posted a video on YouTube titled "A MESSAGE TO KSI AND FRIENDS" alongside with Taylor Holder, where Hall called KSI "overweight to be fighting" and "fat".
KSI gone on the attack once again, this time mocking Bryce Hall’s content on the platform that made him famous. KSI began by claiming he would review Hall’s content in a “try not to laugh challenge,” but it quickly became a “try not to cringe challenge” instead. Immediately, KSI wasn’t happy, explaining just how much he hated the videos: “There’s a lot of good content that comes from TikTok, this is not it. This is what tarnished TikTok. This is the shit that made people hate TikTok". He continued, “If I have to suffer, you lot have to suffer with me,” before adding, “I need the drugs that he’s on because it’s unreal. It’s made him so delusional". It even made him reconsider agreeing to fight, saying, “At this point, it’s just embarrassing even thinking about fighting you, man.” Although, he did add that he might not have too: “I don’t even think he’s gonna beat Austin".
Friends
JJ has a vast array of contacts and commonly collaborates with many YouTubers including:
Trivia
- JJ has 34 million subscribers across his two channels - KSI (22M) and JJ Olatunji (12M).
- In 2019, JJ was ranked the second richest YouTuber in the United Kingdom, after PewDiePie, with an estimated net worth of £16 million ($21 million).[10]
- JJ has collaborated with many celebrities in his videos, including Ryan Reynolds, Dwayne Johnson, Conor McGregor, Matt Damon, Tinie Tempah, Jamie Oliver, and Rio Ferdinand.
- After becoming a particularly iconic figure in the British media industry, JJ has been invited to appear on numerous television shows, most recently on the comedy series 'Backchat', hosted by comedian Jack Whitehall. This special was broadcast on BBC Two on Boxing Day 2015.
- Despite having back & forths with PewDiePie in the past, both JJ and PewDiePie have admitted in their videos that they respect each other. PewDiePie even said that he would love to have a beer with JJ if he meets him in person.
- JJ was a shy person growing up.
- JJ is the first British YouTuber and the first YouTuber of color to receive YouTube's Diamond Play Button.
- JJ is the most subscribed YouTuber of color.
- Since 2014, JJ had been the most subscribed British YouTuber, although DanTDM surpassed him briefly from January to February in 2018. JJ then re-surpassed him after his boxing match with Joe Weller but DanTDM surpassed him again in April 2018. The subscriber growth of JJ's main channel has since slowed down due to JJ not uploading on that channel but instead uploading on his second channel more often. JJ is currently the second-most subscribed YouTuber from the UK.
- JJ's parents are Nigerian, but he considers himself to be British, as he has lived in England his whole life.
- JJ took a hiatus in February 2017, when he stopped uploading videos for 5 months. JJ took a break again later that same year to train for his fight against Joe Weller .
- JJ once lost over 2 billion views by privatizing 1,000+ of his videos and took a break from YouTube. After his return, he made all his videos public again and gained all of his 2 billion views back.
- Although he grew up in a Christian family, JJ revealed that he is agnostic (believing that there is no proof or disproof of God's existence) in his "Googling Myself" video.
- JJ is a fan of Arsenal F.C.
- JJ is a fan of Japanese anime, especially Dragon Ball Z and One Punch Man.
- He met Cristiano Ronaldo and asked him why his free kicks were so consistent.
- When fellow YouTuber by the name of JackSucksAtLife purchased a diamond play button via a fluke in the system, he used KSI's name as opposed to his own name.
- JJ has a yellow belt in Karate.
- JJ is the third youtuber to have 2 diamond play buttons, the first being German Garmendia and the second being Roman Atwood Vlogs.
- JJ has Trypophobia, which is a fear of holes. One instance is in the video OMG THIS GAME FREAKS ME OUT!! | FeedTheHead, where he freaks out after holes appear on a head, but did not know why. Another instance is exaggerated, but appears in the video If you can't beat them..., where he freaks out when he sees a picture of swiss cheese on the r/ksi subreddit. He sometimes jokes about it.
Subscriber milestones
Note: The following dates are according to Social Blade. Dates may vary by one or two days due to differences in time zones.
KSI
- 1 million subscribers: December 30, 2012.
- 2 million subscribers: April 25, 2013.
- 3 million subscribers: August 7, 2013.
- 4 million subscribers: October 29, 2013.
- 5 million subscribers: February 17, 2014.
- 6 million subscribers: June 20, 2014.
- 7 million subscribers: October 3, 2014.
- 8 million subscribers: January 10, 2015.
- 9 million subscribers: April 10, 2015.
- 10 million subscribers: July 30, 2015.
- 11 million subscribers: November 3, 2015.
- 12 million subscribers: February 19, 2016.
- 13 million subscribers: June 5, 2016.
- 14 million subscribers: August 1, 2016.
- 15 million subscribers: November 13, 2016.
- 16 million subscribers: March 11, 2017.
- 17 million subscribers: August 25, 2017.
- 18 million subscribers: February 11, 2018.
- 19 million subscribers: July 20, 2018.
- 20 million subscribers: January 27, 2019.
- 21 million subscribers: January 30, 2020.
- 22 million subscribers: October 24, 2020.
JJ Olatunji
- 1 million subscribers: August 11, 2013.
- 2 million subscribers: March 12, 2014.
- 3 million subscribers: December 22, 2014.
- 4 million subscribers: November 25, 2015.
- 5 million subscribers: January 2, 2019.
- 6 million subscribers: January 26, 2019.
- 7 million subscribers: May 15, 2019.
Decline
- Below 6 million subscribers: May 30, 2019
Regrowth
- 7 million subscribers: June 3, 2019
- 8 million subscribers: January 1, 2020.
- 9 million subscribers: May 17, 2020.
- 10 million subscribers: August 3, 2020.
- 11 million subscribers: November 10, 2020.
- 12 million subscribers: February 8, 2021.
References
- ↑ Olajide Olayinka Williams Olatunji. UK Companies House.
- ↑ Pronounced oh-la-JEE-day oh-la-TUHN-jee
- ↑ Pronounced KSI oh-la-JEE-day BT
- ↑ Top 10 British YouTubers.
- ↑ See KSI's full discography
- ↑ See KSI's soundtrack
- ↑ See KSI's full filmography
- ↑ See KSI's publications
- ↑ See KSI's boxing record
- ↑ Britain's RICHEST YouTubers. Daily Mail UK.