Sampa The Great

Born in Ndola, Zambia and raised between Zambia and Botswana, Sampa the Great, born Sampa Tembo, has built her path between Southern Africa and Australia, where she settled in the early 2010s before returning to live in Zambia. Her writing initially formed through poetry, then through rap that blends spoken word, hip-hop, soul, jazz, gospel, neo-soul and African influences in an aesthetic that is at once introspective and political. After The Great Mixtape in 2015, Sampa the Great refined her universe with the EP HERoes Act 2 in 2017 and the mixtape Birds and the Bee9 in the same year, a project that broadened her presence on Australian hip-hop and alternative scenes. Her first album, The Return, appeared in 2019, followed by As Above, So Below in 2022, conceived after her return to Zambia and marked by a more assertive presence of African musical references, notably Zamrock, melodic rap and singing. Over the years, Sampa the Great has also collaborated with artists such as Estelle, Denzel Curry, Baker Boy, Dallas Woods or Ezra Collective, while performing at international festivals and on stages ranging from hip-hop to contemporary jazz. For Sampa the Great, flow, diction and the choral dimension occupy a central place, with tracks that alternate rhythmic density, sung refrains and narratives linked to identity, transmission and movement.