Get to know Simon Dominic

A thread that will help you get clear skin and good grades

Name: Jung Kiseok
Also known as: Simon Dominic,K-Outa, SSam D
Birth: March 9th 1984
From: Busan, South Korea
Zodiac sign: Pisces
Type of blood: AB
Height: 170 cm

When he started at the underground rap scene in the earlier 2000s he used to go by the name K-OUTA.
Before that he also used the name MC Jungpal but didn't keep it for long.

Finally he changed to the name Simon Dominic which is a combination of Wesley Snipes' character in the movie Demolition Man, and his baptismal name.

Also one of his biggest inspirations in music is Pharoahe Monch, who also released a song called "Simon Says" which he really liked and that’s why he says it so much in his songs

He was really well known in the underground scene and in 2008 he released "I Just Wanna Rhyme: Mixtape Vol 1."
He was really good friends with E-Sens, who was also doing really well on his own with 2 released mixtapes.

DoubleD took an interest in them both and took them under his care and made them sign a record deal with Amoeba Culture. Dynamic Duo produced their debut album before they had to enlist in the Korean army.

In 2009 he debuted in Supreme Team (hip hop duo group with him and rapper E-sens) with their mini album "Team Guide To Excellent Adventure".
Their first single called “Supermagic” went really well and they even promoted it at TV and music shows.

They received a lot of love and support and even won Best new music group at the Mnet music awards that same year and the Hip Hop Award at the Golden Disc in 2010. This was huge for underground rappers who beat famous groups such as Beast or MBLAQ who were really popular.

In 2010 they released their first full album called "Supremier" which also got really good criticism, and a couple months after that they did a repackage of that album called "Spin Off".

After that they didn’t release any more albums as Supreme Team, but they did some collaborations and featurings with other artists.
One of this collaborations was “My girl” with Brian Joo that they even promoted with him on music shows

2011 was the year when Simon released his solo debut album "Simon Dominic Presents: SNL League Begins". This album was a great success and peaked at #2 on Gaon Album Charts.

This album includes the song "ey Hey" which is rapped entirely in Busan dialect and is really great you should listen to it

In 2012 Supreme Team was involved in some drama when E-Sens was sentenced to a two years probation because he smoked marijuana.
It wasn’t until 2013 that they released 2 new songs as Supreme Team and performed it at the Amoeba Hood concert.

Later that year Supreme Team disbanded when E-Sense’s contract with Amoeba was terminated and he decided to not renew with them.
A couple months after that Simon followed his steps when his contract ended and also left the company.

When E-Sense left the company Simon was involved in the famous Control Diss battle against swings that I wont be talking much about, if you want me to I can make a thread because it was messy and long.

Basically Swings called out Simon for not helping out E-Sense because he had a really bad deal with Amoeba and Simon knew about this all along and didn’t do anything to help him. Simon answered in another song and blah blah drama.

Several months after all of that, in 2014 he joined AOMG, Jay Park’s label, as his co-CEO.
He barely knew Jay Park back then and it was Gray who convinced him to join them, which he has always been really grateful for, since he loves the atmosphere and familiar feeling AOMG has.

After almost 2 years without dropping any music in 2015 he released his Extended Play (EP) Won & Only which includes his famous song “Simon Dominic” and "Won & Only" ft Jay Park.

"Simon Dominic" peaked at #2 on the weekly Gaon Digital Charts. He also got an all Kill (it reached #1 at the same time in all the hourly music charts in Korea).

This song talks about his music career and struggles in the music industry when he started in Busan, from the hip hop bar he used to perform, to when he first met E-Sens and his debut with Supreme Team.

This song is still really well known around Korea and it charts from time to time. If you listen to it you will be singing the chorus all day. Trust me it is THAT catchy.

You should also check out the music video he released for "Won & Only" (ft Jay Park). The video also features Gray, Tablo and his daughter Haru.

From 2014-2016 he appeared on a lot of different tv shows such as: Mix & match, radio star, MAPS, SNL Korea, Please Take Care of my refrigerator, king Of Masked singer etc…

On 2016 he appeared on Show Me the Money 5 as a producer alongside with Gray. This was really controversial because on a concert he said that he would never go there because he makes enough money already without the need to go there for exposure.

He also cursed a bit towards the show (nothing new coming from the king of cursing tbh).

He got a lot of nice reviews on his first appearance on the show because he was nicer than people expected and was really humble and respectful towards the other producers and participants.

Even tho AOMG team were last on the producers performance and the diss battle was a completely mess, they were able to turn things around and they won SMTM5 with his team member beWhy.

Simon even said:

"I felt a mix of emotions every episode…sometimes I thought to myself, ‘What was the point of participating,’ but felt better when I saw that our tracks were doing well on the charts.”

Through this show a lot of good songs came out, one of them being “Im not the one you used to know”, which then was remixed by AOMG artists and they tend to perform it at concerts (solo and as AOMG family)

They also dropped “Comfortable” with ONE for SMTM5, which did really good. It even got a perfect all kill on charts and went number #1 on weekly charts.

Finally Team AOMG managed to go to the finals with BeWhy and he performed "XamBaqJa" which BeWhy produced himself and featured Simon on it.

I find this live performance really amusing you should also check it out

Years later Simon revealed that the reason why he went to SMTM was because he was the CEO and had to give a good image of AOMG. Also Jay Park went on season 4 so he thought he needed to do it too.

He doesn’t regret going because he worked hard and had a good time but said that he won’t appear again.

On October 2016 Simon started his famous hiatus and disappeared from all the social media.
To not worry fans he sometimes appeared on his friend’ snapchat and did a couple of featurings.

At the begging of 2018 he deleted all his instagram pictures as well as his profile picture there, which worried fans a lot and at the same time it gave others hope that he was coming back already.

On June 15th of that same year, he finally released his second full length album called Darkroom. This was his first solo music since "Won & only" in 2015, he announced the album with only 6 hours prior to release on his Instagram and didn’t release any music videos.

This album charted on #30 on the Gaon album charts, which is something amazing because there was no promo or announcement to it and the same day various artist such as black pink released their albums too.

It wasn’t until July 24th that he posted any video related to this album. Firstly a making of video of the title song “Demolition Man” was published followed by a live performance video of it with Kim Jong Seo.

The following day, on the 25th, he posted the live performance for his song “Me No Jay Park” which he recorded at his personal studio.

The same day he released that video he stepped down as the CEO of AOMG, this was confirmed later on by the company. He didn’t want to leave the company so he would stay there only as an artist from that day on.

Him and Jay Park appeared on a TV show called “Let’s eat dinner together” in which they clarified that the song wasn’t a diss towards Jay and that they are on good terms with each other. Also it was his first TV apparition in years.

He said in that show the following thing:

"I was CEO of AOMG alongside Jay but I recently decided to leave this position. I went from CEO to artist, and this wasn’t related to money issues at all. [CONT IN NEXT TWEET]

...While I was a CEO I felt as I have become lazy with my music and I was lacking inspiration. I wanted to go back to my beginnings as an artist. “

On July 29th of that same year he re-released Darkroom again, this time adding two new songs one being “Me no Jay Park” and the other one being “In My Hood”.

Let’s talk a bit about Darkroom, which for me is one of the best, most painful and raw albums from these past years.

TRIGGER WARNING: TALKING ABOUT S*ICIDE, DEPRESSION AND STUFF LIKE THAT. SKIP UNTIL CHANGE OF TOPIC

In Darkroom he explains the simple yet sad reason behind his absence during those past 2 years: he was suffering from depression.
The name “Darkroom” works on multiple levels, as it is simultaneously the name of Simon’s workroom, as well as a metaphor for depression itself.

Simon D starts his album with “Roommates Only,” a song which features a minute-long interlude before he begins rapping. He invites us to his workplace “Darkroom,” to listen to his story, but keep on repeating on the chorus asking if we really want to be his roommate:

" My room is dark cuz I wanna be alone

I just have hidden myself for a long time

I’m lonely cuz I’m human, too, and I ask you

Do you really wanna be my roommate?"

"Roommates only” transitions to “06076,” which is was his current zip code at the time and tells the story of the house he was living in. The previous owner of the house bought two buildings before Simon D moved in, yet all he has is a view of the Hangang river.

The exact words he uses are “see the river view, ige dailppun.” The latter phrase is homophonous with “darkroom” and insinuates that even his own house is an uncomfortable place for him rather than a safe and relaxing place.

In the first 2 songs of the album, Simon D switches between a low, nasally voice that he usually reserves for rapping, and a thick, booming voice that echoes his speaking voice. This switch is intentional as it represents the artist Simon Dominic versus the real him: Jung Kiseok.

Simon invites us to his darkroom while Kiseok cautions us if they really want to be his roommates implying that it wont be a pleasure journey. Simon tells Kiseok that he is “a dead body,” while Kiseok asks Simon how he is doing and that him (Kiseok), is becoming “bluesy” inside.

The rest of the album follows Jung Kiseok as he confesses to all the agony, anxiety, and angst plaguing him.

After that comes “Winterlude ’17,” a half rapped, half sung letter song that chronicles his relationship with his ex-lover/girlfriend.
As a love-filled summer fades and fall comes, Simon admits to being left “smiling, without his darling,” in the winter.

Then comes “Jung Jinchul,” a song that pays a heartbreaking homage to Simon’s uncle who went missing when he was a child.

This heart-wrenching song created a happy and warming story because with the help from netizens and fans they were able to reunite his family with his missing uncle.

Later on we have the one of the Gray-produced songs of the album called “Bathtub,” which details Simon’s exhaustion after coming home.

Finally we have “Demolition Man” which is a nod to Simon’s origins, this sounds like Kiseok is having a one-way yell-sung confrontation with himself.
This created a poignant and passionate confession of pain, self-loathing, and shame.

This song is really raw and crude and talk very openly about all the pain he went through:

"You lazy ass wake up

There were may times where I wanted to throw myself on the road the cars run

I keep fuckin’ saying “suicide, suicide”

But I’m the biggest coward in the world"

The album takes an upward turn in “Home Shit Home,” ft Jinbo the Superfreak.
Kiseok hasn’t found an end to his melancholy, but he has found a kind soul he can share it with.

This hopeful and upbeat vibe continues in “Ullah,” a song reminiscent of late 90’s hip-hop song where Simon decides to work through his pain, release his album, and stop imprisoning himself.

Then we have another Gray produced song we have talked about earlier “Me No Jay Park,” here we can see the return of Simon Dominic to remind Jung Kiseok to work.

He doesn’t hold nothing back and he calls himself a “lazy son” compared to Jay Park, talks that the reason behind his SMTM appearance was to convince the public of his worthiness as a CEO, and ultimately resigns as co-CEO of AOMG because he doesn’t feel like he measures up to Jay

Lets take a look at some of the lyrics:

Everyone, attention please

I’m about to make a big announcement

A gun to my head, lock & load, that’s what it feels like right now

[CONT IN NEXT TWEET]

It makes me cringe to hear ‘CEO’ now

It was just hard for me to keep up with Park’s speed

I’m writing my resignation right now, this song is it"

Finally we have “In My Hood” which brings Darkroom to an end.
He admits to move out of his 07067 house, moving past “high scores and trophies,” moving away with friends who only care about his money, and moving forward with his life.

After this he decided to show his face on different TV Shows such as the one mentioned before and “I Live Alone” where he become one of the main characters of the show.

He received a lot of good criticism and gained a lot of recognition again amount the younger and older ones in Korea.

After like 12 episodes he stopped appearing on the show due to some drama. He went on Instagram live with DJ Wegun, promoted Wegun’s music, and when viewers of his broadcast criticized his actions as “networking hip hop,” he responded with a torrent of criticism right back

there was a lot of cursing involved (the man in know for swearing A LOT). I'm going to say exactly what he said, he was quite drunk that night too.

He said: “Good people got together to make music; you can’t spew bull***t about it being networking hip hop. f***ing, you think [DJ Wegun] doesn’t have connections? He’s been doing this for over 10 years, under Soul Company. F***, this is f***ing stressful trying not say anything

" DJ Wegun is f***ing good. And he produced an album. You can’t f***ing call that networking hip hop. Don’t say that f***shit, it’s f***ing annoying. Just listen. If you don’t want to hear it, then don’t listen. F***, they’re just listening holed up in their f***ing rooms. ...

...They must see musicians as pieces of s***. F***, do they think making music is f***ing easy? If you don’t want to listen, f***ing don’t. It’s not your place to judge the fact that we’re making music.”

The response from Korean netizens was split, some saying that Simon had plenty reason to be angry and that the viewer comments went too far, and that social media is a personal space.

Others thought that the level of profanity was too much, and that while they understand he was mad, he shouldn’t have said what he did to fans.

Later, Simon apologized on his Instagram account and because of that he stopped appearing on the show the following week. They even cropped some of the video that was already recorded and ready to be broadcasted.

He said: “Hello, this is Simon Dominic. I apologize for making everyone uncomfortable during last night’s Instagram live with inappropriate language and profanity. There are no excuses, and it’s my mistake. [CONT IN NEXT TWEET]

...I sincerely apologize to those who were disappointed with my thoughtless words and actions. Thank you to all of the criticisms and words of concern. With this, I’ll reflect on my actions and work toward more thoughtful speech and more mature actions. Thank you.”

After a couple of days he deleted the picture with the apology which made netizens even more angry because they thought that he did it for show and truly didn’t care about what they think of him and that his words weren’t sincere.

Because of this a lot of advertisements and publicity stuff he had were terminated the following days.

Two weeks before this he appeared on SMTM777 as the featuring artist in Loopy's song “NoNo”.
In that song he talks about this drama and said he wouldn’t do more Instagram Lives for a while.

You can watch it full here (it has subs and the song is dope)

In 2019 it was announced that AOMG were going to drop the first HIP HOP survival called Sign Here, in which Simon was a judge.
They also dropped a track called this way that you should all check out

He won the Korean Popular Music award in the category of Best Hip Hop in 2018 for Darkroom.

On September 3rd of 2019 he dropped his latest EP called No Open Flames, it’s a really commercial EP because he got tired of trying to achieve perfection.

As he said in Dax4 he receives criticism no matter what type of music he makes, so he might as well be commercially successful.

Hence the lyrics:

"I’mma keep callin’ for money in my lyrics from now on

Maybe this is who I’ve always wanted to be

Since I always get criticism and praise together at once

I’mma have a threesome with these both bitches"

He dropped a music video for 5 of the songs of this ep. POSE! Includes the well known singer and his friend YUMDDA

We also have Make Her Dance ft Loopy and Crush
(Also known as the girls breaking their backs mv)

He also released the MV for GOTT featuring Woo Wonjae, Moon and Jvcki Wai

And finally he also dropped "Ya ain’t gang" alongside JayAllDay & SIMO of Y2K9

Let’s go with some other facts

He’s in the group DAMOIM which consist of friends born in 1984 (Paloalto, The Quiett, YUMDDA, Deepflow and him). The name is the same as an old chat app used back in the 90s.

DAMOIM released a Xmas song called IMMA DO ft Woo Wonjae, Nucksal, Huckleberry P and Hyoeun

This song peaked at #2 and they had to do some solidarity stuff and donations that they recorded for DINGO

DAMOIM also dropped 중2병 in which Simon had his foot broken so he is with crutches on that video.

On September 2019 he also released his Killing Verse which is a completely MUST watch at least once.

He was in a 6 year relationship with singer Lady Jane, and both were really open to talk about it. They are still friends and collaborated in the past.

He was the founder and leader of the crew Illest Konfusion (IK). The crew included Supreme Team, Hot Clip (BeatBox DG & Beenzino), Rocky L, Swings, J-Tong, and many more.

Illest Konfusion disolved because as Simon said in an interview, he became too greedy about it becoming bigger instead of focusing on taking care of the crew members.

Him and Super Junior’s Heechul are really good friends and go by the name “AB friends” because of their blood type. They have been on multiple shows together such as MAPS and they are such a weird pair you gotta love them.

He didn’t went to the South Korean army because he lost his left retine. He said so himself in a couple songs, such as "No Thankxxx" ft Epik High, Mino, The Quiett.
This song for me is better than the first part (Born hater) and less known.

He can also sing, like for real.
I’m still waiting for him to drop a ballad song

He started his own brand called Darkroom (Yeah he's really original we know...) alongside his friends. It is expensive so get your wallet ready if you want something when they release stuff every now and then.

He did a cameo on the Drama "Entourage", you can watch him on Episode 7 or you can watch him cameo in this video.

The man can do aegyo but you wont ever see him doing it again on tv because he HATES IT. Either way here you go, thank me later

He used to be part of the "Chocoball club" A group of friends which included idols, singers and actors who had the same blood type.

They were: Jang GeunSuk, Yong JunHyung, Kim HeeChul, Mitra Jin, Lee Hong Gi, Choi JongHoon etc

I'm going to leave it here for now. Thank you for reading, stan him for good luck.