Jidion Adams opened up about the toll his YouTube success has taken on him, claiming he wasn’t ready to be thrown into the spotlight and feels like he “sold out” to please the masses, including sponsors, but that’s going to change.
The popular prankster couldn’t hold back the emotion after becoming frustrated with the NFL for telling him to make a TikTok video he was filming for them more “family-friendly,” which made him realize he’d changed.
“I sold out, man,” the rising internet star said on Sept. 11.
“I’m valuing money and I’m taking the easy route over things, and it’s sad because I only just recently basically realized I sold out. I feel like that’s the saddest part about it. Like, I couldn’t even see that I was selling out, you know?”
The YouTuber feels like it started becoming a problem after drama between him and Twitch’s Pokimane became a hot topic, which caused his popularity to explode.
“I don’t think I was ever supposed to be in the main spotlight,” explained Jidion. “I feel like it put a spotlight on my channel where [people] that don’t even fuck with me would look at my shit too.”
The YouTube star explained it “shined a light that like was too fucking bright,” and one he “never wanted to be under,” but he ran with (because who wouldn’t), and it impacted his content. Rather than making videos for himself and like-minded fans, he started making them to please everyone, even though it didn’t sit well with him.
“That shit really fucked me up,” JiDion admitted.
At that point, he broke down.
“When you have people that actually want to see you fail and people that don’t have your best interests at heart fucking looking at you, it changes you. It changes you.”
Jidion explained all he ever wanted to do was “make the best content ever,” and his community was initially supposed to be “us versus the world,” but instead, he “joined the world.” But now he’s realized what’s been happening, he plans to “go back to basics” and let his true self shine.
And that doesn’t mean it’ll be controversial; he’s learned how far to push.
“At the end of the day, I’m never going to do anything that goes against my morals. If it doesn’t go against my morals and everything, then yeah, man, we’re going to ball.”
