KSI - All Over the Place

The Guardian 0

The YouTuber’s genre-hopping second album is let down by corny lyrics

KSI doesn’t have the typical rapper origin story. He started out making gaming videos on YouTube and became a millionaire before ever releasing a song. His 2020 debut album, Dissimulation, was his first real attempt at proving that he was more than just a social media influencer cosplaying as a hip-hop artist.

His follow-up project, All Over the Place, is aptly titled. It fidgets from genre to genre, UK garage to drill, pop to Afro swing, but never quite finds its resting place. KSI has great adaptability, however, and can switch from a fast-paced rhyming pattern on Madness to lullaby-rapping on Don’t Play. He successfully pulls in big names too, and Number 2, featuring Future and 21 Savage, is a fine collaboration.

There are occasional glimpses of vulnerability. “I’m way too old for you to beat me/ I just want you to treat me like a person,” KSI sings on Sleeping With the Enemy, about his mother. Overall, though, platitudes and easy metaphors rattle inside hollow lyrics. “Everything I do, I do it all for you”, go the lyrics on You. “Whenever you’re here, it’s a good time,” he sings on Holiday. Sadly, the Hallmark mawkishness swamps any grit.