[FEATURE] BETA SQUAD INTERVIEW

Beta Squad feature in the JD Family campaign, which is a celebration of giving, togetherness and chosen connection. To celebrate the JD Family campaign, VIPER caught up with Beta Squad on set, here’s our interview…

How did you celebrate reaching 10 million subscribers on YouTube?

Chunkz: We did a mini photoshoot taking pictures with our 10 million YouTube plaques.
Sharky: We didn’t throw a party, we’re not really party people. But I wish we did something now – it would have made sense to celebrate with our close friends. We met up and took pictures so we could post on Instagram and that’s it. We should do something special, maybe we will have a delayed celebration.

Besides that, what’s been your highlight of the year?

Sharky: As a group, our best memory is our charity match. It was insane, we sold out a Premier League Stadium in an hour, it was crazy! The actual day was amazing, the weather was perfect. There were a lot of goals and a mystery player.
AJ: Chunkz didn’t score though. Can we get that in as well?

Niko: Kenny also didn’t score.
Kenny: I try my best.
Sharky: Our football match was the highlight of the year for sure.

Who’s been your favourite guest so far this year?

Chunkz: Druski.
Niko: Druski was a good guest and also Cristiano Ronaldo.
AJ: Our collaboration with AMP, that was really big as well.
Chunkz: We enjoy making content, we’re very intricate with who we want to work with on our channel. So when someone is on the channel that means…
Sharky: [Interrupts] No, let’s be honest here, we’re not. Well, it’s not that we’re intricate, we just go through Chunkz’s phone book and say, “Who can you get on the channel?” And that’s how it usually happens. But this year we had Druski, Aitch…
Niko: Ronaldo.
AJ: Messi.

What was the craziest challenge you undertook with Beta Squad this year?

Kenny: Filming.
AJ: We disbanded.
Kenny: We’ve all got different schedules, so I’d say filming. When I’m fighting, it’s very hard to film with Beta Squad so we’re just trying to adjust that to make it suitable. Not just for me, but everyone else has stuff going on as well.

What’s your earliest memory together as a group?

Chunkz: March 2016.
Sharky: There was a gaming convention in Birmingham.
Kenny: I wasn’t there.
Chunkz: You were, that was the first time I met you.
Kenny: Was I?
Sharky: You were there with Niko in a blue T-shirt.
Niko: I begged you to come for ages.
Sharky: Yes and you finally came.
Chunkz: You were there Kenny.
Kenny: Was that when KSI performed ‘Lamborghini’?
Sharky: No, you can’t remember it.
AJ: Wow, Kenny can’t remember.
Sharky: Yeah, but this was 2016, you and Niko went together. Me, AJ and Chunkz went together, remember?
Kenny: I don’t remember.
Sharky: He’s a pro boxer, he takes too many punches to the head.

What does family mean to you?

Niko: Family means everything to me, it’s the reason why I wake up in the morning. The reason why I work. I just want to be there for my family and that’s why I do it all. Shout out to my family, my nephew Muhammad as well.
Chunkz: Family is everything, it’s the most important thing to me, it’s the reason that I have drive every day. Niko took the words straight from me, I echo what Niko said.

Tell us about the Beta Squad family dynamic?

Kenny: AJ is Daddy [Laughs] No, wait.
AJ: I don’t know what you’re talking about.
Kenny: AJ is the old man of the group, he’s 50 years old. I think we’re just kids. No one looks after us to be honest.
AJ: We’re just kids.
Kenny: No one’s taking control. We’re more like brothers, five crazy siblings.
AJ: Niko’s the kid though.

What makes family a powerful force for change?

Niko: Family can do anything, so it just makes a powerful force, and it changes things.
Sharky: Family is also togetherness. If you have a strong family and a strong bond, you can work together to help each other to achieve whatever you want to achieve. It could be something small or something big, but that’s part of family, working together. If you have love for each other, you can do anything.

Who is the best dressed in Beta Squad?

Niko: That would be me.
Kenny: Nikolas Omilana.
Chunkz: Niko without a doubt.
AJ: And his size 14 feet.
Niko: Yeah, I have to try harder because I’ve got bigger feet. There are less shoes I can wear, but I make things work.

What’s been your favourite JD shoe to wear this year?

Niko: Definitely the one I’m wearing right now by Under Armour, the Under Armour Bandit Trail. But my favourite overall JD shoe is an Air Force, I’m a big fan of the Nike Air Force.
Sharky: The greatest shoe of all time, the white ones.
Niko: They go with everything.

What is your favourite JD piece in your wardrobe right now?

Kenny: I like the Nike Unlimited Woven Jacket and Track Pants I’m wearing, it’s nice. I wear it to the gym; I like the material.
Sharky: I second that, I like these a lot. I’ve got a few different colours.

Do you have any secret skills or talents?

Chunkz: AJ’s a very good footballer, more than he gets credit for honestly. He’s a very good quality of footballer, but we only saw that once in the Beta Squad tournament. AJ can speak Somali the best out of all of us, he speaks the mother tongue the best. Kenny and Nico can’t speak it at all. Kenny: I can fly planes though.
Sharky: Yeah, he can fly planes.
AJ: He’s a pilot, yeah.

Sharky: No one’s going to be able to compete with that one though.
AJ: The thing is we troll so much that people may not believe that he does. There’s actually footage. Sharky: Yeah that one’s true, he does fly planes.
Chunkz: That’s probably the only true thing we’ve said today.
Niko: I’ve got a driver’s licence.
Chunkz: We’re kind of talentless.
AJ: Sharky can do Rubik’s Cube in under a minute.

What advice would you give your 16-year-old self?

Chunkz: Stop.
Niko: Mine would have been the opposite, I would have said keep going. I was doing YouTube for years and it was not going anywhere, I started having second thoughts.
Kenny: Same, I’ve been on YouTube since I was 12 or 13. So at 16 I would have told myself to keep going because I could have given up, it wasn’t going anywhere.
Sharky: If I could speak to my 16-year-old self, I would tell him to give up on football. You’re not going to make it, find something else. Maybe then I would have started YouTube earlier and I would have joined Niko making skits.
Chunkz: I don’t know what I would tell my 16-year-old self, I feel like I’ve done everything right as a kid. Growing up, I took the right path so I wouldn’t change anything.
Sharky: I would just say keep doing what you’re doing. Keep believing in yourself, keep trying to take risks. That’s something a lot of us did to become content creators or to have this career. When we all started it, we took a risk. We were laughed at by our friends and family. They said, “What are you doing? What is this silly thing?” We all believed in ourselves to do this, so I would tell him to keep going because it’s going to work.
Niko: I just want to say as a closing line, we’re similar, that’s why we’re family.