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British YouTuber and rapper KSI has been on YouTube since 2009 and has built a huge following posting gaming-commentary. He currently has about 34 million subscribers and about eight billion video views across his two YouTube channels. Olajide William Olatunji aka KSI has ventured into numerous industries including music when he pursued his music career as a rapper. He has established himself well on his YouTube channel which he started over a decade ago. Today, he has a net worth of $15 million and current the fifth highest paid YouTuber in the world.
The Beginning of His YouTube Career
KSI has started shooting for his YouTube channel in 2012. He initially registered under the username JideJunior in 2008 during his teen years. He then registered for a second account with the name KSIOlajideBT on July 24, 2009 and it is his YouTube username to this day. The second account mainly have contents of his gaming commentary videos of the FIFA video game series and was shot in his bedroom in Watford at his parent’s house. He decided to drop out of college to focus mainly on his YouTube career when he started earning pretty decent amount from it monthly. At the time, he sought the advice of his teacher if he should drop out, his teacher then asked how much money is he earning from the channel, KSI answered that he earns around $2,000 from his channel monthly and the teacher was shocked since KSI is earning more than his teacher so he decided to really drop out from school.
Initially, his parents were against him dropping out, however, he was able to convince them that it will be for the better if he starts focusing on his YouTube career. His parents eventually became supportive of what he does and were even featured in some of his videos. With so much time in his hands, KSI decided to change the theme of his contents to sort of a vlog-style content and started playing numerous games in 2012. With this change, he was able to reach about a million subscribers.
Controversies and Set Backs Before Making it Big
The rise to fame of KSI is not complete without some controversies. He was widely criticized when he described a rape face in his Vlog and was a recurring joke on his numerous videos from 2012 until 2013. It was the center of controversy after the allegations of him sexually harassing a female staff at the Eurogamer event in 2012. The controversy went on when another person came forward and accused him of sexual assault towards the spokesmodel Brandy Brewer. However Brandy quickly dispelled the accusations when she tweeted that she consented KSI when he motorboated her and it was just simple joke. However as a result of these controversies, Microsoft decided to cut ties with KSI and even banned him to enter the Eurogamer events.
KSI has subsequently apologized for these behaviors and for any offence his videos have caused anyone. He added that people have started using his content as a way to bring him down and it was not his intention at all when he made those videos. He stated that he has a strong desire to move on from the issue and he hopes that people would eventually see his great content and the value he has given to his subscribers as well as the brands and partners he had throughout the years before the controversy even took place.
Expanding His Content and Becoming One Of The Most Popular YouTubers In The World
KSI decided to sign with the sub network of Maker Studios, Polaris, in October 2013. He has become a part of the British YouTube group called Sidemen. The group is known to produce numerous videos which mostly consist of sketches, challenges and video game commentary. In 2014, KSI decided to sell some merchandise through the Sidemen and his merchandise was sold through the Sidemen Clothing merchandise. The following year, KSI published his a biography titled KSI: I Am a Bellend and was released on September 2015 in the UK and was released to the US after five days from the UK release. He then toured to promote the book and was widely successful. In 2016, KSI and Sidemen decided to publish yet another book titled Sidemen: The Book and has sold about 26,436 copies in a span of three days and even topped the hardback nonfiction charts. However due to some unresolved conflicts, he decided to leave Sidemen in 2017 and announced his decision through his Twitter account.
After his departure from Sidemen, he released a few diss track videos where he criticized the members of the group and the members responded back on his videos. Later that year, he admitted that the said falling out with the Sidemen members were not exactly real but is not fake either. The said falling out was just a way to drive attention and he actually did not leave the group. His subscribers were amused at his honesty and he continued to soar high on YouTube. He was then ranked 2nd by The Sunday Times among the top 100 UK Influencers in 2019.
Branching Out To Music
As he started getting more popular, he started branching out and tried to take off his music career and was widely successful as a musician as well in the UK. His debut song titled Lamborghini released in 2015 has reached the No.30 on the UK singles chart. He released an EP titled Keep Up and his debut EP ranked first on the UK R&B Albums Chart. He continued to release music and even gone on tours to promote his music. He released a new song titled New Age in 2019 which is collaboration with the YouTuber Randolph. His debut studio album Dissimulation was released in 2020 and debuted at 2nd place on the UK Albums Chart. He released yet another studio album titled All Over The Place which debut at number 1.
Sources: Wealthy Gorilla, Mirror UK, Celebrity Net Worth