User:PantheonRadiance/sandbox

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Etika Early Life revision[edit]

Desmond Daniel Amofah was born on May 12, 1990, in Brooklyn, New York, to Owuraku Amofah, a Ghanaian politician and lawyer from Kibi,[1][2] and Sabrina Amofah.[3][4] His father was based in Ghana in the 1990s as a member of the Parliament of Ghana from 1992 to 1996, and he stated that he was distant from his father because of his political occupation.[5] He had an older brother, Randy Amofah, who died in 2010 from an asthma attack after a sandstorm in Accra, Ghana.[6][7] He also had a half-brother, Cardinal Valery, who ventured into online video-creation following his death.[3]

Based in New York, Amofah resided in Brooklyn throughout his life.[8][9] Prior to his career as a gaming YouTuber, Amofah was active in modeling and rapping, having uploaded rap videos from 2007 to 2009 under the name "Iceman".[6][10] During that time, he released an independently-produced mixtape titled Written in Ice in 2007.[4] Amofah started modeling in his early twenties and continued until 2015, stating that he stopped because his passion had diminished. He owned an account on the modeling and social media website Model Mayhem, where he stated he was "quite tall" and that his last measurement of height was "six feet, six inches".[11][12] Amofah also dealt with homelessness, temporarily living in a shelter after quitting his job at Uniqlo to become a full-time YouTuber.[7]

Amofah stated in a tweet that the pseudonym "Etika" came from the 2003 video game Sonic Battle. In the game, players could input a cheat code titled "EkiTa"; he decided to switch the T and the K to create his username as he "liked that result better".[‡ 1][13][14] He was inspired to grow a hi-top fade from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, which featured the hairstyle in the game.[‡ 2]

  1. ^ "Former Dept minister's son, Desmond Amofah, found dead in Manhattan". Graphic Online. June 26, 2019. Archived from the original on June 28, 2019.
  2. ^ "Former Deputy Minister's son found dead in Manhattan". GhanaWeb. June 26, 2019. Archived from the original on June 26, 2019. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
  3. ^ a b Asarch, Steven (January 21, 2021). "A debate is swirling around who gets to profit from late-streamer Etika's legacy after his half-brother's resurgence on social media". Insider. Archived from the original on March 11, 2023. Retrieved March 22, 2023.
  4. ^ a b Lentz III, Harris M. (October 28, 2020). Obituaries in the Performing Arts, 2019. McFarland & Company, Inc. p. 123. ISBN 9781476640594.
  5. ^ "Ghanaian-American YouTube star Etika reported missing after posting a suicide note". GhanaWeb. June 22, 2019. Archived from the original on September 27, 2021. Retrieved June 30, 2023.
  6. ^ a b Casado, Samuel Hubner (June 26, 2019). "De Nintendo-rebel die te ver ging – een ode aan Etika" [The Nintendo rebel who went too far – an ode to Etika]. Power Unlimited (in Dutch). Archived from the original on June 26, 2019. Retrieved April 2, 2023.
  7. ^ a b Asarch, Steven (March 3, 2020). "Remembering Etika With Those That Knew Him: 'I Got To See His Light'". Newsweek. Archived from the original on March 4, 2020. Retrieved June 25, 2019.
  8. ^ Rudgard, Olivia (June 25, 2019). "YouTube star Etika found dead at 29". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on June 25, 2019. Retrieved October 17, 2023.
  9. ^ McWhertor, Michael (June 25, 2019). "Police: YouTuber Desmond 'Etika' Amofah dead at 29". Polygon. Archived from the original on June 26, 2019. Retrieved January 6, 2024.
  10. ^ Romano, Aja (June 25, 2019). "YouTube gaming star Desmond "Etika" Amofah dies at 29". Vox. Archived from the original on June 26, 2019. Retrieved April 2, 2023.
  11. ^ Farrell, Paul (October 26, 2018). "Is Etika OK? YouTuber Writes 'It's My Turn to Die' on Reddit". Heavy. Archived from the original on October 9, 2020. Retrieved October 6, 2020.
  12. ^ Valdez, Nick (October 19, 2018). "'JoJo's Bizarre Adventure' Fans Find the Perfect Live-Action Double". ComicBook.com. Archived from the original on March 26, 2023. Retrieved March 26, 2023.
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference nytimes1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ^ Okutani, Kaito (July 8, 2019). "Access Accepted第617回:ある人気YouTuberの死" [Access Accepted #617: The Death of a Popular YouTuber]. 4Gamer (in Japanese). Archived from the original on July 8, 2019. Retrieved March 22, 2023.


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