The Zambian-Australian rapper and singer Sampa the Great has made the record her family history was waiting for. 'Nu Zamrock', released on Friday 30 October through Loma Vista Recordings and reported by Zambia Monitor on Tuesday 3 November, is her third studio album, after 'The Return' in 2019 and 'As Above, So Below' in 2022, and its 16 tracks, running about 37 minutes, set hip-hop, rock, soul and Zambian rhythm inside the sound of Zamrock, the psychedelic rock that Zambian bands made in the 1970s.
The album grew out of a discovery. While reconnecting with relatives in Zambia, Sampa learned that her uncle, George Kunda, known as Groovy Joe, was a founding member of WITCH, one of the bands that defined the movement. The record opens with an interview with him about the band's history, so that the genre's past introduces its present.
Who made it
Sampa executive-produced the album with Cadenza, and the Zambian producers Magnus 'Mag44' Mando and Solomon Moyo worked on it with them. The guests are Sia, on 'Supernova', KAMAUU, on 'Star', Mwanjé and Nicole Gumbe. Loma Vista's own description of the record is that it is fierce and uncompromising.
She previewed the material at festivals in Australia in October and plays a sold-out double show at Blue Note London on Wednesday 4 November, the first dates with the album out.
For Zambian listeners the interest is partly in the lineage. An album that puts a founding member of WITCH on its first track, made with producers from Lusaka and released on an American label, carries the sound of the 1970s to an audience that Zambia Monitor notes has already sold out two nights in London.
Sources: Zambia Monitor, “Sampa The Great releases 'Nu Zamrock' album inspired by family roots” (3 Nov 2026).