On this day 5 years ago, when I posted the fifth and final part of my 50@50 selection that launched the Dubhed blog, the 50th (of 51 songs, just to be awkward) was The Return by Sampa The Great.
Sampa Tembo was born in Zambia, raised in Botswana and based in Australia since 2013. The Return was her debut album in 2019.
The title track of The Return, featuring Thando, Jace XL, Alien and Whosane, is a nine-minute epic, mixing poetry, rap, spoken word and lush musical arrangements that explores the meaning of home and sense of belonging.
Five years on, and new song Can't Hold Us comes from a similar place, but a thrilling mix of beats and rhymes delivered in under three minutes.
I've lost track of Sampa's releases in the intervening half decade and Can't Hold Us is a welcome wake up call that Sampa The Great lives up to he name and cannot be ignored.
I've also belated discovered this short film that accompanied the release of The Return. It's a smidge under 13 minutes, which is time well spent in my opinion.
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