Prime Video - available from Thurs 26 Jan
KSI, aka Olajide Olayinka Williams ‘JJ’ Olatunji, combines several distinct, but interlinked, showbusiness lives.
He became a YouTuber aged 14 in 2008, and now has over 40 million subscribers. He used his profile to launch a parallel career as a rapper in 2015 and has since enjoyed a No 1 album and has appeared on eight Top 10 singles. He also diversified into sport, by turning his online rivalry with fellow YouTuber Logan Paul into a professional pay-per-view boxing event which was beamed across the world in 2019, and he’s yet to be beaten in any of his bouts since. And his recently launched energy drink, Prime, has seen a mad scramble for bottles at the tills.
This new fly-on-the-wall documentary follows him over the past year, and he’s quick to dispel any suggestions that the film is simply a puff piece designed to boost his brand.
‘I didn’t want it to just be, “Oh, I’m KSI – look how great I am!”’ says the 29-year-old. ‘I wanted it to be open and show that I’m human. It’s not as if everything is great in my life all the time – I have my ups and downs.’
He’s remarkably candid throughout, broaching such subjects as his struggle to bond with his parents and an online spat with his brother, Deji.
‘Director Wes Pollitt asked whatever he wanted, and I was always going to be open and say how I truly felt. It just feels better for the soul that way.
‘Making the film, I realised that I was broken, and there were a lot of things I needed to fix. I wasn’t happy in myself, and my situation with my family wasn’t great, so I definitely had to take stock. But I’m in a much better place now.’