Thick Of ItKSI (ft. Trippie Redd)
By BRYAN CHO and LEON XIE
The earlier half of 2024 was a blessing to modern music fans, with multiple hit albums from popular artists such as Charlie XCX and Sabrina Carpenter. In comparison, the latter half of the year was relatively peaceful, with a lack of industry-shaking events. That was until the unexpected release of “Thick of It,” from JJ Olatunji (publicly known as the YouTuber KSI), shocked his own community and innocent music fans who had yet to be exposed to his music.
KSI’s music career has been quite successful, given his initial job as a content creator. His most-streamed song to date, “Holiday,” received a strong positive reaction upon release, and has accumulated over two hundred million plays across YouTube and Spotify. With such success in the industry under his belt, fans were understandably excited when Olatunji leaked snippets of the filming for his music video on social media. But when “Thick of It” finally released, the internet beheld, aghast, the fruits of his labor.
The silence, of course, didn’t last for long. The hook to the song’s second verse—“From the screen, to the ring, to the pen, to the king / Where’s my crown? That’s my bling / Always drama when I ring”—took TikTok by storm. Thousands of posts were made ridiculing KSI’s attempt at casting his climb from a casual gamer to a giant in the content industry in a manner reminiscent of an out-of-touch adult trying to appeal to children. Because the song featured established rapper Trippie Redd, no one could have anticipated what many called a “Disney Channel anthem” over a formulaic beat (a jab at the fact that the other lyrics read in much the same way). The music video added a perverse cherry-on-top in the form of shots resplendent in bright colors where KSI danced furiously with something resembling a grimace in an attempt at getting viewers riled up.
Whereas Olatunji’s previous music was a manifestation of his virtues, vices, and psyche that stood apart from his YouTube brand, the new direction “Thick of It” took was a turn for the worse. His image used to be that of a more home-grown internet personality, which reflected his being a young adult through using profanity more freely and making jokes that abided by YouTube’s community guidelines less carefully.
In recent years, however, he appears to have shifted his target demographic to younger audiences, and that change seems to continue with “Thick of It”. Many long-time fans have noted that, in both his own videos and those he makes with his creator team, the Sidemen, he has taken on a louder, more explosive personality that is more irritating than comedic. The arrogance of his more screen-savvy attitude is shown through the song’s braggadocious lyrics: “I don’t know nothing bout no ice, I’m just cold / Forty milli subs or so I’ve been told,” which in particular hints at his supposedly effortless achievement of success and what is considered “cool.” Fans pointed out how badly this clashed with the acronym his moniker consists of (Knowledge, Strength, Integrity), but the song was just another point of frustration in a pile of controversies the YouTuber has recently become embroiled in.
Part of the new image Olatunji is trying to create for the KSI brand is that of a content mogul. He is undoubtedly deserving of the title, boasting (as his song states) around forty million subscribers across his two channels. In doing so, Olatunji made a decision that would draw the ire of his enormous audience by partnering with fellow YouTube giants Logan Paul and MrBeast to release Lunchly, a lunch kit brand that is attempting to compete with Lunchables as a healthier alternative. The former of Olatunji’s partners is infamously controversial, while the latter has recently faced damning claims about work conditions and atmosphere in his business. Not only that, extremely large YouTubers have been notorious for marketing businesses that are little more than a cash-grab to their young viewers who lack the financial judgment to avoid them. Skeptics were soon vindicated as product quality issues emerged almost immediately after Lunchly’s release, with all three parties involved receiving massive backlash on social media.
“Thick of It” is almost certainly related to Olatunji’s wish to turn his channel into a more commercial endeavor. The lyrics contain very little meaning outside of Olatunji’s constant reassuring that his success story was a journey devoid of obstacles and his current position was ordained by fate, starkly contrasting with the more somber demeanor of his past musical work. He even fails to deliver this message in a variety of ways, with the most done lyrically being Trippie Redd’s verse, which is short and far less complex than the rest of his discography. Especially given Redd’s skills with the microphone, his final line “My life is hard, I took the wheel, I cracked the code / Ain’t nobody gon save you, man this life will break you” is so blunt and uncreative that it seems to indicate a total lack of effort on his part.
Though it was meant to be another great step in Olatunji’s surprisingly stellar music career and maybe even a ticket out of his current controversy, “Thick of It” has accomplished precisely the opposite of its potential benefits. Not only has he proven that KSI’s spot in the music industry and entertainment as a whole is intended to be nothing but a business venture, he has made himself a laughingstock in the worlds of critics and fans alike. The song’s devastatingly stale lyrics, dime-a-dozen production and visuals devoid of any meaning despite all their eye-catching elements make for a grueling listening and viewing experience. Olatunji has and likely will continue experiencing the effects of the song’s overwhelmingly negative reception. The one good thing that can be said about “Thick of It” is that its performance may deter Olatunji from releasing any more similar music, but until more official statements come, let us all hope he does not threaten to drop again.