Samthing Soweto: A Life of Crime, His Learning Disability & Searching For His Absent Father

Samkelo Lelethu Mdolomba, better known as Samthing Soweto, just stays an industry fav. While Sam's been making headlines lately for his incredible weight loss, the musician and his fans go way back. South Africans were first introduced to the soulful vocalist back in 2017 when the relatively unknown singer made his debut on Sun-El Musician's hit song 'Akanamali'. Still, there's so much more to the Soweto artist.

Music helped him escape a life of crime

While the world-famous artist now enjoys the many privileges that come with stardom, including lots and lots of moola, growing up things did not come so easy.

Explaining his run-ins with the law, the muso opened up about serving at least 2 months in jail when he was younger. Poverty and drug addiction had driven the hopeless dreamer to do desperate things, including armed robbery, TimesLive reports.

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But Sam says the forgiveness of his community helped him recover. With their support, his criminal record has since been removed.

"I know what type of forgiveness one can get from a community and what that means for an artist. You can draw a lot of strength from that. Knowing that your neighbours or those around you want you to win does something for you that you can't find in any book or song. Your community builds you," he told the publication.

The muso has trouble reading & writing, he almost dropped out of school

It may be surprising to learn that the talented songwriter has always had trouble reading and writing. While song and rhythm flow so very easily from Sam's brain, it's amazing to think the musician has written so many hit singles in spite of his learning disability.

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According to SowetanLive, Sam dropped out of high school in grade 8 because of his learning challenges.

But the brave adult decided to give his schooling career a second chance and in 2018, the 34-year-old proudly announced he'd passed grade 12:

"Finally, I matriculated. It was hard but I did it. I had to memorise a lot of the words and I'm constantly spelling things wrong. Even to this day, I have a real problem with that. If you read some of the things I write, you'll probably find a lot of mistakes in there," he told the hosts of Trending SA.

Samthing Soweto grew up not knowing who his father is

Even though the Akulaleki hitmaker grew up surrounded by the constant love of his mom and grandmother, it's clear the wound of an absent father is not an easy one to heal.

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While not very much is known about Sam's home life, Briefly News previously reported that the founding member of The Soil was born and raised in Johannesburg, Soweto.

He's the third of four children raised by their single mother. The musician also spent a year in The Eastern Cape with his grandmother when he was just five years old, but lots of loud cries and homesickness got him sent back to his mommy:

“My mom thought maybe an upbringing in the EC would benefit me but it didn’t. I lost weight, not that my granny wasn’t looking after me, I cried every day…it was too much for me so she came back after a year,” he said.

And while it's unclear whether or not Sam has actually found his missing father, last year the muso headed to Twitter and opened up about his search for his paternal family.

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It seems Samthing Soweto had stumbled upon his father's last name and hometown, both super big pieces to the puzzle.

And while many fans commended the artist for being so brave in his search, others could not help feeling like the 'witch-hunt' would only lead to more heartbreak and disappointment.

Take a look at some of the reactions below:

@Ms_Lofthouse said:

"Brave move, well done."

@_MbaliS_ was on the fence:

"Please do a DNA test before anything else escalates in situations like this."

@SRibons shared his own story:

"When I met my dad, I felt that my mother had been the best father I could have ever had and I left there thankful that that man didn't raise me. Funny enough, they had a photo of me as a kid framed on the wall. Probably the only one he had of me."

While it seems Samthing Soweto has always known a life of challenges, the brave Afro-soul singer continues to inspire Mzansi with his willingness to forgive life and move on.

The many hardships have truly shaped one of Soweto's finest exports.

Source: Briefly News