By Juba Pulse
He rose to stardom in East Africa while representing South Sudan as a 2010 contestant on the hit reality TV show Tusker Project Fame.
K-DENK (Koang Deng Kuon Kong) is a South Sudanese hip-hop artist who is easily recognized as one of the greatest musical acts to have come out of South Sudan urban music scene. Separated from his family by war as a child, he was raised in Kakuma Refugee Camp in Northern Kenya. It was as a refugee that K-Denk started singing as part of his church choir and fell in love with the stage.
K-Denk has been a headliner at major regional music and humanitarian efforts. In South Sudan, he was one of the leading artists fronting My Referendum, My Freedom campaign which was meant to raise awareness for South Sudan’s historic independence referendum. In 2011, he was invited by Kenyan artists to join the Kenyans for Kenya campaign, to provide relief to drought victims in Kenya.
He has also regionally recognized as a talent to watch and has won several awards like the Hip Hop Artist of the Year and Best Hip Hop Collaboration of the Year at the East African Kisima Music Awards.
K-DENK is not just about singing only, he returned to South Sudan to establish his record label, Wangdunkon Empire, in order to develop other young South Sudanese artists a few years ago.
On 15 December 2013, K-Denk was in Juba when civil war once again returned to South Sudan. After experiencing the devastation of war first hand, and the senseless loss of young life, K-Denk returned to Kenya to resume his music career, singing mainly in Nuer, as a response to the trauma he felt within his community.
He has since released songs such as Ou Kene Guut (The World Hasn’t Ended) and Guola Ni Wida Piny (Bending My Head Down). His lyrics touch on love, politics, and the abuse of power by South Sudan’s leaders. He also founded the Ou Ce Jiek Leadership Gathering in 2016, to bring together displaced South Sudanese youth in Kenya, many of whom had previously taken up arms and suffer from severe trauma.
In 2017, K-Denk released his third full-length studio album, William Deng, dedicated to his father who died fighting for South Sudan’s independence when he was just six years old. The album is dedicated to all of South Sudan’s fallen heroes who have given their lives for a more free and prosperous South Sudan.
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