Cover Model Muscle KSI
Rapper, boxer, YouTuber, joker and all-round entrepreneur, KSI is to many of his fans a modern-day polymath and 21st-century renaissance man. To others, he’s an irritant, a jackass and a charlatan. Where you stand on this point depends in large part on your age. But one thing is certain: he’s a phenomenon that can’t be ignored
Standing in a car park in Willesden, north-west London, KSI takes off his shirt and records a message for his 12 million Instagram followers.
‘Alright, what’s up? Your boy’s doing a competition. Now, if you buy Not Over Yet on iTunes, ladies and gentlemen, I will give you…’
He starts again. ‘Alright, yo! What’s up? So, your boy is going to do a little competition. If you buy Not Over Yet on iTunes, then you will be able to get two tickets to my next fight against Swarmz. And also! Two tickets – VIP – to the Jake Paul fight next year, ladies and gentlemen. So, go get… arrggh.’
He turns to face a person from his management company, Abs. ‘Wait, what about if you’ve already bought… can you still enter?’ he asks.
‘Don’t say how we’re going to select the winner,’ Abs says. ‘Just say, “To be in with a chance to win…”’
One more go. ‘Yo, yo, yo – so your boy is doing a little competition. So. If you buy Not Over Yet right now, on iTunes, you’ll be entered – enter – acompetition for a chance to get two tickets to my fight against Swarmz, as well as two VIP tickets to the Jake Paul fight next year. So, go buy your thing, and I’ll see you in a bit.’
‘Why did I say buy your thing?’ he says, exasperated. ‘Oh man, I’m shit at this.’
***
It’s Tuesday. In 18 days, KSI – whose real name is Olajide ‘JJ’ Olatunji – will fight Brandon ‘Swarmz’ Scott, a London rapper, in front of 20,000 fans at the O2 arena in Greenwich, London. Hundreds of thousands more will watch via payper-view (PPV), putting the match in DAZN’s (the streaming service with links to controversial boxing promoter Eddie Hearn) top five most-watched boxing events of all time. Today, he sits in the sunshine outside a photo studio waiting to have his picture taken for Men’s Health, cradling a gallon hydration bottle filled with colourful BCAAs.
If you’re over 25, KSI may well be the most famous person you’ve never heard of. He’s Britain’s biggest internet celebrity, someone who became famous making YouTube videos (skits, pranks, gaming commentary), then became a pop star, then a boxer. That’s just for starters.
If you grew up on traditional media – hearing about celebrities on TV, the r
