KSI finds himself in 'Thick Of It' with another terrible song
JJ Olatunji, better known by his online moniker, KSI, is a popular YouTuber, professional boxer and successful entrepreneur — but a talented music artist? That's debatable.
His newest song, "Thick Of It (feat. Trippie Redd)," was released on October 3 to a widely negative reception from listeners. You probably won't hear it on the radio, but social media trolls have certainly gotten their hands on it. Algorithms everywhere are flooded with memes of KSI's latest "hit."
Is it the worst song ever? Certainly not, but that doesn't make it any good. It's a challenge to get through the three-minute runtime and once it's over, you'll be wishing you spent that time doing literally anything else. With corny verses, a generic beat and a slapped-on big-name feature to top it all off, a KSI song is born.
To put the hate into perspective, as of Wednesday, the "Thick Of It" music video has amassed more than 236 thousand likes on YouTube. Yet, the top comment on that same video, by user @YTStash, which reads, "Honestly, if it had a different beat, different melody, different lyrics, different sound effects, different artist, different theme, different message, and a different genre, it could've gone hard," received approximately 350 thousand likes.
The jokes pile repeatedly within the comments, with very few praising the song.
The jokes don't stop with fans — even celebrities are chiming in. The largest so far is Canadian superstar Drake, who joined in on the fun by encouraging Adin Ross, one of the most popular streamers, to play the song, mockingly calling it a "banger" during a stream.
Even the featured artist, Trippie Redd, was bombarded with questions about why he would be part of such a song, and he jokingly cleared the air when he posted on social media, "I was held hostage to do this. If this doesn't hit 20 million views the first month, KSI won't let me go. Please free me."
KSI's brother, Deji, another massive YouTube creator, also shared his reaction to the music video. He laughed until he was out of breath for approximately nine minutes in front of his 12.3 million subscribers.
The top meme emerging from the internet involved another popular streamer, IShowSpeed, who called KSI to show his reaction to the song. The interaction included screaming and mocking, ending with KSI aggressively hanging up, angry at the notion that he should quit music.
While KSI might not appreciate it, it's becoming a trend at his expense across all platforms. Again, the song isn't the worst — it's his personality and response that made it a viral moment.
Before the wave of memes became uncontrollable, KSI sat down for an interview with Clash, opening up about the criticism, stating, "The secret is never, ever take things to heart."
Yet, days later, he went to Instagram Stories to express his frustration, posting, "Imagine spending so much time and effort into making a song for people to then repeatedly take the piss out of it online. I get it's trendy to hate me rn but can we like move on?"
KSI's fanbase knows how seriously he takes the medium of music, and they use that against him, tormenting him with memes for their enjoyment. It's so sad but funny, at the same time, to watch him continuously seek validation from the public as a serious rapper. Ultimately, it turns him into a laughing stock.
The criticism is well-deserved. Within the music video and the lyrics, he markets his cheap, sugary drink Prime to children and calls himself "the king." All within one song.
After years of fame, he continues to make rookie mistakes — more than nine years ago, his debut song, "Lamborghini," elicited a similar reaction. Memes are not new to KSI, and while he's usually laughing with his audience, he's become the joke this time.
