All Over The Place (2021)

All Over the Place is the second studio album by English influencer, boxer, and musician KSI. It was released by RBC Records and BMG on 16 July 2021. The album features guest appearances from Future, 21 Savage, Yungblud, Polo G, Anne-Marie, Digital Farm Animals, Craig David, Jay1, Deno, Gracey, Bugzy Malone, Rico Love, Lil Durk, and S-X. The deluxe edition was released on 31 August 2021. It features additional guest appearances from A1 x J1, Nevve, and Lil Wayne. Production was handled by a variety of record producers, including Digital Farm Animals, S-X, Matt Schwartz, Jacob Manson, Toddla T, Show N Prove, Don Corleon, Jake Gosling, Diztortion, and Quix, among others.

The album was preceded by the UK top three singles, "Really Love", "Don't Play", "Patience", and "Holiday". For the deluxe edition, it was preceded by only one single, "Lose". The album debuted atop the UK Albums Chart. In promotion, KSI performed a live concert, the KSI show the day after the release of the standard edition. His friends and fellow musicians, such as Digital Farm Animals, S-X, AJ Tracey, and others participated in the event.

Release and promotion

All Over the Place was preceded by four UK top ten singles:

"Really Love", featuring English singer-songwriter Craig David and English record producer Digital Farm Animals, was released on 23 October 2020 as the album's lead single and it debuted at number three on the UK Singles Chart.

"Don't Play", a collaboration with English singer-songwriter Anne-Marie and Digital Farm Animals, was released on 15 January 2021 as the second single and it debuted at number two on the UK Singles Chart.

"Patience", featuring English singer-songwriter Yungblud and American rapper Polo G, was released on 12 March 2021 as the third single and it debuted at number three on the UK Singles Chart.

"Holiday" was released on 18 June 2021 as the album's fourth single and it debuted at number two on the UK Singles Chart.

British rapper Jay1's single "Swerve", which features a guest appearance from KSI, was released as the fifth single on 1 July 2021 and is included on the Platinum VIP edition of the album.

The lead and only single for the deluxe edition, "Lose", a collaboration with American rapper Lil Wayne, was released on 6 August 2021.

KSI headlined The SSE Arena, Wembley on 25 February 2022 in support of the album.

The KSI Show

To accompany the album's release, KSI headlined a livestream concert titled The KSI Show, which aired on the Moment House platform on 17 July 2021. KSI enlisted the help of Anne-Marie, Big Zuu, Craig David, Deno, Digital Farm Animals, Ella Henderson, Jay1, Nathan Dawe, Randolph, S-X, Swarmz, Tion Wayne and Yungblud as guest performers. AJ Tracey, Dan Bilzerian, Emile Heskey, Jonathan Ross, Logan Paul, Lorraine Kelly and the Sidemen also made guest appearances during the concert.

The KSI Show featured custom-built stages, costume changes and choreography by Black Skull Creative. The show also featured comedy sketches, written by KSI with Joe Chandler, Nick Wegener and James Farmer, who are notable for their work on the American animated sitcom, American Dad! A pre-show red carpet event, presented by Abbie McCarthy, was livestreamed to KSI's YouTube channel in the run-up to the main show.

Critical reception

All Over the Place received generally positive reviews from critics. AnyDecentMusic stated the summary of other ratings and Metacritic did the same, but gave one positive review, three mixed reviews, and zero negative reviews.

Writing for Clash, Robin Murray gave the album a 7 out of 10, explaining that it "follows hot on the heels of his controversial debut, and the project's breadth and diversity definitely lives up to its title" and "a record marked by diversity, 'All Over The Place' is held together by its makers ambitions". Dale Maplethorpe of Gigwise felt that it is sort of a hit and miss, praising its diversity, and stated that "KSI is brilliant at making 'summer bops'", citing the songs "Don't Play", "Really Love", and "Gang Gang" as examples. Kyann-Sian Williams of NME magazine gave the album 3 stars out of 5, stating that KSI "makes another honest attempt at a pop–rap". Kadish Morris from The Observer rated it 3 stars out of 5, providing fidgets from genre to genre, "UK garage to drill, pop to Afro swing, but never quite finds its resting place". Writing for The Independent, Annabel Nugent gave it a 3 out of 5, stating that "is a bumper-to-bumper blending of genres buoyed along by some of music's major-leaguers". Imogen Lawlor gave it a 3.5 out of 5 and stated that the album is "clearly structured as KSI effortlessly navigates numerous genres" and "given that he covers so many genres (with varying success), KSI's credentials as a 'hip hop sensation' are questionable".