Sampa the Great's Family History Is Written in Zamrock

Sampa the Great's universe has witnessed a whirlwind of activity over the past month. She held listening sessions for her new album, Nu Zamrock, which arrived ceremoniously at the tail end of October: 16 tracks of some of the most inspired lyricism emerging from African hip-hop right now. Last week, she sold out two back-to-back performances at London's prestigious Blue Note. Then, as though all of that weren't enough, the artist had the honor of sharing a studio session with Fatoumata Diawara, whom she calls "the epitome of African rock star."

"She is so fly, kindhearted, good-spirited, a musical genius. To be in the studio with her, oh my gosh, I'm trying to recover. It's so humbling when the people whom you look up to reach out to you, want to meet with you," says the artist in a voice note she left in the WhatsApp group she's created for followers of her music.

Nu Zamrock opens with a conversation with her uncle, George "Groovy Joe" Kunda, a founding member of the legendary Zambian rock band W.I.T.C.H. Sampa the Great explains to him what her generation is trying to do with music: take disparate influences and funnel them into something entirely new and revolutionary. 

"The bands used to create covers of Western music, Rolling Stones and so on. But then your band started making the covers, but adding a Zambian music style. You were among the first people to do that. You could have started Zamrock," she tells him. He responds with evident delight before giving her her flowers: "I have listened to some of your pieces of work, and I know you're heading somewhere serious."

From the get-go, we learn that this lineage is an integral part of what she inherited at home. The artist spoke to OkayAfrica while still in the throes of putting the album together, revealing her astonishment at discovering that she wasn't the only black sheep in her family. "After the pandemic, when we came back home, my sister and I were watching The Watchmen. We remember hearing this song and thinking, like, oh, this is cool. We went on Twitter, and everyone was tweeting: That's a Zambian band! I started looking them up. I need you to know that I had no clue about my uncle founding this band, being a pioneer. This is the equivalent of you listening to a sound and being like, that's cool; working with the band, and then a year or two later, finding out that your uncle actually founded the band," the artist told us.

In discovering this hidden part of her story, Sampa the Great unlocked a superpower that had been lying dormant, waiting for the right moment to emerge. Nu Zamrock expands on ideas developed on her previous album, As Above, So Below, where she held her own alongside rap impresarios like Denzel Curry, Kojey Radical, and Joey Bada$$ and, importantly, collaborated with the current iteration of W.I.T.C.H., led by original frontman Emmanuel "Jagari" Chanda. 

The new album plays out like a companion to your thoughts, a guiding light illuminating previously untouched corners. It's a collection of vignettes from childhood ("Intro"), flashes of rap bravado ("Simon Says"), peaks of sibling chemistry ("Can't Hold Us," featuring her sister Mwanjé), moments of theatrical splendor ("Supernova," featuring Sia), and glimpses of vulnerability ("I Can Love"). On the bits where she sings, it’s ethereal, like the impeccable vocal run she executes on “Star” featuring KAMAUU.

There's something almost destined about the way the pieces came together, with her career taking her from Zambia all the way to Australia before eventually bringing her back to a history that had been lodged within her own family all along. "It's so crazy because my career took me to this different country, this different continent, and it all started there," she tells us. "Maybe if I had stayed and learned more about the music or the history of my family, I would have found this out earlier. But it's just like, it was really destined."

The boldness of Zamrock, its willingness to absorb different influences and create something distinctly Zambian, resonates with an approach to music that Sampa the Great has been developing throughout her career. Hip-hop informed her earliest musical years, while soul became a formative influence during her teens. These sounds now converge with the rock sensibilities of an earlier Zambian generation to form what she calls Nu Zamrock.

When we spoke, she'd just released "Can't Hold Us" with Mwanjé and had this to say: "It was about staying unique. It had been two years since I released anything, maybe three, and I was coming back to a market that was flooded. Even more so now, people are looking for attention in this way or that way."

She continued: "It's so hard, particularly in the African market. It's difficult to get your music out there, and you really have to stand out with whatever you're trying to promote. I think knowing and having the confidence to say, hey, I know that the sound I've created, the lane I've created for myself, is unique. It may not be what is considered mainstream, but it's perfect for me. And it can't be replicated, it can't. This is like a new flavor born from what has already been done. But you can't douse it. You can't douse it."