He said: ‘You’re not yourself today,’” KSI recalls, “and he was right: I just didn’t know what to do. Everything was going through my head. Thoughts… nerves… thinking I had over trained... It was weird.” It’s great. Obviously the view is good, but Ithink it’s mainly the location. Living in London makes life alot easier. In addition to this we continue to see KSI wear his signature bandana around his forehand with his dreads. While his YouTube videos centered mostly around FIFA, he also participated in eSports competitions where he went on to beat the notable Virgin Gaming co-founder Zach Zeldinfull.

Though he says YouTube is “still the core” of what he does and “allows everything else to blossom”, he is keen to expand his horizons – and not just by beating the crap out of his peers in the boxing ring. They’d both be disappointed. In the end, KSI vs Weller was a surprisingly accomplished demonstration of boxing which KSI won handily within three rounds after the referee stopped the match. Before launching his final flurry of punches against Weller's head, KSI beat his chest in defiance: another point proved.Look at my phone. Wake up, look at my phone, look at all the messages, try and reply to everything and then get up, shower and brush my teeth. Alot of times Igo for arun. And then, yeah, Istart the day. KSI isn’t your typical rapper with a familiar rapper origin story. Born in 1993, Olajide Olayinka Williams Olatunji started as a Youtuber making gaming videos. Since then, he has grown from a YouTuber to a rapper, filmmaker, and professional boxer. But he’s changed. “I’ve just grown up,” he explains. “I started this when I was 15 or 16. I didn’t really know much. Now I’m 24, almost 25. I understand I’m in a position where lots and lots of people have grown up with me, watching me, so I need to watch what I do, watch what I say, and not be stupid. I need to take responsibility for the power I have.” During that time, KSI and four other gaming YouTubers formed Ultimate Sidemen, a group that would later expand to a seven-membership group. His opponent? Fellow YouTuber Joe Weller. The bout was the culmination of months of bad blood and trashing talking between the two, and was set to become easily the biggest live event in YouTube’s history with 1.6 million eager fans waiting to watch online.

YouTube has been created in a way where you receive the videos that have the most attention, and unfortunately as humans, the thing that creates most attention is violence and crime, beef and drama,” he says. A few months later, he would rejoin the same group, a move that other YouTubers felt was fake and that the whole conflict was designed to generate more views on videos of KSI and other group members. Oh yeah, Ilove space. Ilove everything about space, Ijust think it’s so intriguing. Especially the idea of there being another life form out there. We have no idea, and they probably have no idea as well. Or maybe they do have an idea and we don’t really know. Ithink it’s cool. The more time you spend with KSI, the harder it is not to like him (a natural on the shoot, he even agreed to take off his trademark bandana for a few shots). The bolshy character who published I Am A Bellend is nowhere to be seen when the camera isn’t on, and is increasingly fading into the distance in his videos, too.Disclaimer:Whilst colour can be placed at any stage of your dreads journey, we advise you avoid placing any colour or bleach in your hair for the first few months as your hair begins to develop. He lets out a loud, infectious laugh – one that, after spending some time with him, you realise is a tell: he’s unsettled by the conversation, or wants to move it on. Whilst he went onto try other hairstyles after this he kept his sides shaved which we see today on his high top dreads. Permed Hair

As was often the case ever since he began filming and uploading videos at the age of 16, KSI had a cameraman pointing a lens at him. Do you ever cringe when you see old photos of yourself dressed up in disgusting clothes that your parents used to wear? The same year, KSI took on Logan Paul in one of the most lucrative non-professional boxing fights of all time alongside his brother Deji who took on Logan’s younger brother, Jake Paul. It’s one of those things where because it’s his first offence, I’d give him a bit of leeway,” KSI says about his American counterpart. “Everyone makes mistakes. You have to learn from your mistakes and don’t make them again, and realise a lot of people are influenced by you.” However, he adds, “It’s stupid that [in a subsequent video] he tased a dead rat.” I’d probably look like ahuman, just so Icould blend in. Ithink that would be the smartest way to go about things.

Despite all of this, if you’re over 35 there is a good chance you’ve never heard of KSI. His fame is almost entirely contained on YouTube and social media. He exemplifies a modern strand of celebrity that usually bypasses older generations completely. Despite being young and handsome and in demand, he has never done an in-depth, mainstream press interview and fashion shoot like this one, because – frankly – he doesn’t need to. From the comfort of his home and using nothing more than his own talent and a camera, he’s become a household name to anyone in their teens with a following many pop stars and actors could only dream of. I guess it’s because people don’t really know what to expect from me,” KSI says when asked to explain his own popularity. Maybe not KSI’s best moment and by his standards it was a disgrace as he mentioned in the video above! At the start of his journey, we can see his afro hair has been twisted in a semi freeform way and left to grow. I mean, it’s all right. I’ve worked hard for it, so it’s nice to reap the rewards finally. But it’s not like Ijust sit down and do nothing any more. Istill work hard. Ionly started because Ienjoyed playing games and doing YouTube. There wasn’t any money in it at the time, and then eventually money became athing and Iwas able to make alittle career out of it. But it’s not like Isaw myself being at this point, Ididn’t have agoal in my mind like, I’m gonna have this much, blah blah blah. Ijust enjoyed doing it.