For someone who made a name yelling over FIFA clips, JJ Olatunji—better known as KSI—is remarkably calm when talking about the chaos he calls a career. “It’s taken me ten-plus years to get into this position,” he says, casually dropping the fact that he just made a rock song with Lil Wayne. “It’s not something that just happened overnight.” No kidding.
KSI’s latest album, All Over the Place, lives up to its name. There’s drill, pop, Afrobeats, and, yes, a surprise guitar-driven track with Weezy that somehow sounds like Bloc Party crossed with Hot Topic radio. “I brought rock Lil Wayne back,” he grins.
That genre-hopping isn’t just a flex—it’s strategy. “My comfort has been in places where it’s uncomfortable,” he explains, clearly proud of the whiplash his fans might experience. He’s not here to deliver a familiar brand. “If someone was to go, ‘What style does KSI make?’ I want them to have no idea. Just blank. That gives me freedom.”
But freedom isn’t free, especially when the internet already thinks it owns you. “A lot of people still think I’m just a YouTuber,” he says. “Like my life is easy and I fluked my way to this point.” That’s part of the reason he’s letting Amazon trail him for a documentary—part flex, part defense exhibit. “Even my friends find my schedule ridiculous.”
His music, like his online persona, exists in a strange simulation. “Sometimes I feel like I’m not really in control,” he admits. “It’s just—I’m being led into a path I can’t stop.” The concept spills into the Lose video with Lil Wayne, where everything literally gets sucked into a vortex. No, it’s not a metaphor for burnout. Not yet.
That tug-of-war between personal storytelling and audience accessibility is the core of All Over the Place. “With Dissimulation, I was direct—but it only made sense if you really knew me,” he says. “This time, I was indirect. I kept people at arm’s length. But the songs are better.”
Still, fans want the personal touch. So KSI’s debating whether to go full confessional next time—or not. “Maybe I’ll have one album full of personal things, then one full of bangers. Balance it out.” He even floated the idea of creating a persona—something Ziggy Stardust-adjacent—to explore new territory. “I’d still call myself KSI, but maybe the album would be by Sam or Chris or something,” he shrugs. “Just some random name.”
If the fans are confused, that’s fine. If the critics are surprised, even better. If the face in the Lose video looks like “Handsome Squidward,” well, you can blame the animators. “They did me dirty with that one,” he laughs.
But behind the jokes, the ambition is no joke. “I’ll do all the hard work. I just want to make everyone else’s job easy.” That includes features with artists like Anne-Marie—“she killed it within a day”—and running his own label while prepping a tour, training for boxing matches, and running several YouTube empires.
So yeah, KSI really is all over the place. But somehow, it’s working.
Listen to the interview above and then check out the videos below.
