Zambian-born, Botswana-raised Sampa Tembo delivers a charismatic, genre-hopping third album that brings her story back to Africa.
Zambian-born, Botswana-raised Sampa Tembo is back with Nu Zamrock, and it feels like a homecoming. The third album from Sampa the Great is a genre-hopping set full of charisma and cheek, and it shows an artist who knows exactly who she is and where she comes from.
Her résumé already carries serious weight. In 2019, Sampa became the first woman to win an Australian Recording Industry Association award for hip-hop or rap. She is also the first, and so far only, artist to win the Australian Music Prize twice. Those firsts came while she was based in Australia between 2013 and 2019, the years her career took off.
But Sampa has never let the story be rewritten. Since returning to Africa to live and record, she has explained that in Australia she was constantly labelled Australian. That left her feeling she had to stand up for Zambia, its music and its culture, while her Botswana upbringing and the sounds she absorbed there slipped out of the conversation.
Nu Zamrock answers that frustration with music. The title nods to Zambia's rock legacy and recasts it for a new generation, with Sampa moving across styles on her own terms. For a global talent who has long carried the continent with her, the album closes a loop and confirms she can hold her own on any stage in the world.
