Shlomo (beatboxing artist)

SK Shlomo
SK Shlomo in 2007
Background information
Birth name	Simon Shlomo Kahn
Born	1983 (age 33–34)
Origin	Bourne End, Buckinghamshire, England, UK
Genres	Beatbox, hip-hop
Occupation(s)	Beatbox artist
Instruments	Human voice, percussion
Years active	2002–present
Website	shlomobeatbox.co.uk

Simon Shlomo Kahn (born 1983), known professionally as SK Shlomo and previously as Shlomo, is a British singer-songwriter, beatboxer, music producer and live looping technologist.

SK Shlomo is of Jewish descent, with Israeli, Iraqi and German lineage. He grew up in the village of Bourne End, Buckinghamshire. He is a classically trained percussionist and a jazz drummer, learning the drums from the age of 8 years and playing classical percussion in youth orchestras. His father is a jazz guitarist. He began making vocal rhythms as a child as a way to practise his drums, and in his teens discovered that others practised the art of human beatboxing. In 2003 he left the Physics with Astrophysics degree course at Leeds University to pursue his music full-time.

SK Shlomo first began performing as a beatboxer in 2002 when he became the champion at the King of the Jam beatboxing tournament in London, winning a pot of Bonne Maman jam. He became known for his original beatboxing techniques including his 2-mic trancebox routine which he debuted at the World Beatbox Convention in 2003.

He first came to broader attention in 2004 when he collaborated with Björk on her all vocal song Oceania, which Björk later performed at the opening ceremony of the Athens of the 2004 Summer Olympics. The song Oceania was commissioned by the Olympic Games Committee and heard by an estimated 3.9 billion people around the world making SK Shlomo one of the most-heard beatboxers in history (although most would not have realised that the drum sounds were vocal). The performance was nominated for a Grammy Award. He began touring the UK, Europe and Canada with London hip hop act Foreign Beggars, before making a solo appearance on Later... with Jools Holland in late 2005. Following a performance at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall concert hall, he became Artist in Residence at Southbank Centre in 2007.