British YouTuber, rapper, and boxer Olajide Olayinka Williams JJ Olatunji, recognized professionally as KSI, has issued an apology after utilizing a racial slur in a current video and introduced that he could be taking a break from social media.

British YouTuber, rapper, and boxer KSI, recognized for his controversial persona, has apologized after utilizing a racial slur and determined to take a break from social media.

KSI is a co-founder and member of YouTube group the Sidemen. On Sunday, KSI and the Sidemen appeared in a video primarily based on U.Ok. recreation present “Countdown” the place the contestant chooses between two stacks of letter tiles, one containing vowels and the opposite consonants, and has 30 seconds to kind the longest single phrase they’ll utilizing 9 letters.

KSI fashioned the phrase “Pi,” a pejorative time period used to explain folks of South Asian origin within the U.Ok., saying: “I don’t mean this maliciously, but the word’s Pi.” The offensive phrase was bleeped. KSI’s fellow Sidemen are evidently amused by the slur within the video.

The clip drew large outrage on social media, together with from main arts practitioners hailing from the South Asian group. Actor, author, and producer Guz Khan, BAFTA nominated for “A Man Like Mobeen,” posted a sequence of tweets, considered one of which stated: “You see @KSI the issue you have here is that a lot of Pakistanis can make things very difficult for you and anyone giggling in this video. When they catch up with you, I hope the dead countdown joke was worth it…”

DJ Bobby Friction tweeted: “I had this racial slur thrown at me & got physical beats by racists for my entire childhood. Genuinely upset that @KSI (a guy my children love) did this & thought it was funny. The rest of them laughing can go f**k themselves too. People dehumanising brown people like it normal.”

The offensive video has since been faraway from the Sidemen YouTube channel, and KSI has issued an apology.

“I wanna apologize for saying a racial slur in a recent Sidemen video. There’s no excuse, no matter the circumstances, I shouldn’t have said it and I’m sorry,” KSI tweeted. “I’ve always said to my audience that they shouldn’t worship me or put me on a pedestal because I’m human. I’m not perfect, I’m gonna mess up in life, and lately, I’ve been messing up a lot. So I’ve decided I’m gonna just take a break from social media for a while.”

KSI’s Previous Controversies

With regards to drama, it’s honest to say Olajide Olayinka “KSI” Olatunji has been via all of it. From a number of boxing matches with varied on-line personalities to a feud with BTS’s military of followers, he’s actually no stranger to controversy and confrontation.

Regardless of having a large attain on social media and over 6 million followers on Twitter, the YouTuber introduced on March 25 that he’d be leaving Twitter because of the prevalence of cancel tradition on the platform. That is little question partially a response to the backlash he obtained after being accused of creating transphobic jokes throughout a Jackbox stream.

He voiced his opinion that the platform as a complete has modified for the more severe in recent times.

“Twitter used to be an amazing place where you could connect with people… now it’s just full of pretentious people that are ready to cancel & destroy your legacy for breathing incorrectly.”

Though the announcement got here as a shock to a variety of KSI’s followers, his earlier tweets did counsel he was rising uninterested in the platform. Simply hours earlier than his departure, he posted a tweet that labeled PewDiePie as “ahead of the curve” for leaving Twitter again in 2019.