Tanzanian Rapper

Name: Simalike "Sima" Musika.
Birth of date: 25th September 1989
Age: 23 years old
Home town : Mbeya
genres : hip-hop
Occupation: College Student/ Emcee/ Poet/ Entrepreneur/ 
language speaks : English,  Swahili
Years active : 2010 to present
Twitter: @Godzambassador.
FB: uHuRu Arts/ uHuRu/ MADE Society

Born Simalike Walter Musika, SIMA is a Tanzanian underground Hip Hop recording artist from the self-entitled crew “wanaitwa uHuRu”, (They are called Freedom) located in the heart of the slums of Dar-es-salaam Kinondoni, Muslim a.k.a “Mnazi Dume”. Sima started his musical journey at the age of 12, developing a diverse taste for music from the different tape records he would find from his sister and brother’s collections including the likes of Backstreet boys, Nsync, Craig David, Michael Jackson and other pop artists.

 He first fell in love with Hip Hop music the day  he came across Eminem’s renowned 3^rd album Marshal Mathers LP. He became an instant fanatic and got more and more interested in the art. “I used to listen Missy Elliot, L.O.X, DMX, D12 but if you grew up watching MTV in the early 2000’s  you would know how great the rock music was, that’s why I still loved listening to Blink 182, Sum 41, Limp Bizkit and the such, I even wanted to get a lip piercing like that white dude from Blink…lol!”. Sima says he never gave thought to rapping or writing his own lyrics, until he bought his first Jay-Z album the “The Gift & The Curse”; “When I first heard Jay-Z rap on that Hola Hovito track?!, I just wanted to rap like him!, so I started writing my own lyrics, I was 15 by then”. He kept on perfecting his skill, constantly inspired by a lot of international and local artists like Juma Nature, Professor Jay, Ay, Mwana FA and Noorah. Throughout high school, He would secretly write his lyrics but never shared them with a lot of people, only his closest friends. While always trying to get a place to record (studio).  Due to the conservative nature of the Tanzanian culture and his family upbringing, Sima found it hard to freely express his talent, but being a is free-spirited individual, with a constant desire to grow and get new experiences he would come across more and more people who would encouraged him to expose his talent.     

                

“Glonight” was the name of the Event that changed my life. The poster I saw the day before said it was a diverse Art event, so I knew I had to show up.  I arrived late since it was happening at the other side of the city from where I stayed, [Quality Plaza] the place was packed with local and international students and hiphop fans together exhibiting graffitti,drama,fashion and hiphop music.A bit later when the event was closing up and people were mingling I was introduced to uHuRu(who then were Killy and pH) by the Event organizer Caleb, who happened to be one of my friends from high school, as the vibe kicked in we started doing a ciphering (freestyle), I made a huge impression on them and soon the music conversation came up,they told me they had access to a studio(that I later found out was a mic,two speakers and a laptop at Killy’s place!)we exchanged contacts, hooked up the following week,The highlight of my career and the beginning of my journey in uHuRu.

At present Sima is in his final year at the Institute of Finance Management in the city of Dar-es-salaam taking Bachelors in Finance, working on establishing his own movement through the Hip Hop culture (uHuRu). A dreamer, spreading a message of consciousness, freedom of the mind, breaking away from tradition, acknowledging one’s own roots and origins. uHuRu is working on establishing their own recording studio, a brand franchise, Skate park a Hip Hop/Jazz lounge and even a record label in the long run.