Original name Sam Kawuma, Sk Simeon was born in the city of Kampala in Buganda kingdom. During his Primary school, he used to perform on stage, singing and dancing to culture songs, and in 2004, at aged 14, migrated to Australia as a permanent resident.
He started school in 2005 at Chandler Secondary College, but it wasn’t easy for him since life was so different to Uganda, there was no more friendly neighbours, no kids playing soccer in the parks and no one could speak his language.
In 2009, Sam finished school and a good friend called Steven (Rasta Peace Provider) took him to a studio in Dandenong where Sam recorded his first song. A dub reggae tune called One Love, Sam free styled the lyrics since he didn’t know to write songs but later on he started writing more songs.
While he was on Youtube surfing for dub in Australia, he saw a guy called Ali MC who had the same interests and contacted him. In 2011 Sam changed his name to Sk Simeon and right away started recording a reggae dancehall mixtape under his new name with his new friend Ali, who also introduced him to Apex, a South African born beat boxer and DJ, and they started gigging together.
That year Ali gave Sam his first professional gig as a musician at Bar 303 and after that, Apex took Sam to perform at Island Vibes, a reggae, dub and soul festival on Stradbroke Island.
When Sam returned, he finished off the mixtape with Ali, and held a launch at the Horn Ethiopian Restaurant in Collingwood. After a successful year of gigs with Ali and Apex, 2012 saw Sk Simeon record his first EP with Ali MC in the studio which was released on Raspect Records.
No journey is easy, but we always need to keeps the faith. Uganda, brace yourselves for this new talent. Raggae to the next level!
