sampa the great

While studying at San Francisco’s Academy of Art University, Sampa the Great encountered an “intense culture shock” — one that nearly stopped a journey of self-exploration and expression of her African culture. “Being visited with the actual reality of how the world works and how the world sees me as a young African girl, that experience was huge enough for me to actually stop expressing myself,” she says of this time period, which contributed to a two-year lull in writing. But that time in America was eye-opening for the now-29-year-old, helping her become one of contemporary rap’s most valued voices, thanks to her fearlessness and unparalleled ability to describe the world around her. Growing up in an artistic family, the Zambian-born, Botswana-raised Sampa Tembo started taking piano and...