KSI has spoken about the mixed response to ‘Thick Of It’, and said that he hopes to avoid becoming a meme with the new single he has coming out later this month. Read the interview below or watch it in full via the video above.
The artist, boxer and influencer spoke to NME while on the red carpet for the 2025 BRIT Awards, and opened up about the huge response he got with his single ‘Thick Of It’ – including both the positive and negative.
The track saw him collaborate with Trippie Redd, and earn his second BRIT Award nod, being nominated in the Song Of The Year with Mastercard category. He was shortlisted alongside acts including The Beatles, Dua Lipa, Coldplay and Sam Ryder, but ultimately lost out to Charli XCX and Billie Eilish for their collaborative single ‘Guess’.
Discussing the response to his nominated song, KSI told NME: “For the positive, it was very small compared to the negative! There were a lot of people who heard the song and really enjoyed it.
“They were saying that it was on their playlist and they play it all the time. I know a lot of kids are obsessed with it, and whenever I perform the song it always pops off… But for the negative, oh my god! The memes!”
He continued: “I’ve got to be honest, it was funny. There were a lot of funny memes, like people who were in car crashes and while they were passed out, they’d wake up just to turn off the song. It was annoying at first, but then I realised I’ve got to accept it.
“The internet is the internet, it’s going to do its thing and you can’t fight it. You can try, but they’re going to win eventually. That is until I got a BRIT-nominated song, then I won! Does that mean I defeated the internet?”
Looking at what fans can expect to see from him next, KSI said that he has new music on the way, including a track that he will be sharing later this month.
“I’m going to be releasing more songs. I’ve actually got a fight on March 29 and for my ring walk I’ve got a new song that I’m going to come out to,” he told NME. “I’m interested to see if they’re going to meme that too. Hopefully not. I don’t think it’s meme-worthy. There is nothing meme-able about it so we’ll see.
“I released ‘Dirty’ and there were no memes on that, so now I know where the level is. Either it’s an incredible song that’s meme-worthy or an incredible song that isn’t meme-worthy.”
KSI also dismissed rumours of more collaborations, telling NME: “I don’t want to collab with anyone, I need to do more songs by myself. I’m going to stick to my guns and not collab with anyone. That’s right, I’m going to release a song, by myself, and that is it.”
You can check out the full list of winners for the 2025 BRIT Awards here.