Today Sampa the Great announces her triumphant return with her 3rd album Nu Zamrock, executive produced by GRAMMY-award winning producer Cadenze, out October 30th via Loma Vista Recordings, marking the beginning of a new era for the Zambian musician and rapper. The album announcement is accompanied by the defiant new single ‘Simon Says’. LISTEN HERE + WATCH HERE + PRE-SAVE LP HERE.

The album was born out of a discovery that reframed her whole creative identity. While recently reconnecting with family back home, Sampa learned that her blood uncle George Kunda (Groovy Joe) was a founding member of Zambia’s legendary psychedelic rock band WITCH, one of the pioneers of the 1970s movement known as Zamrock; that daring 1970s fusion of rock, funk, and African rhythm.

That inheritance became the heartbeat of Nu Zamrock. On this new album, Sampa finds herself reimagining Zamrock through her own lens, merging it with hip-hop, poetry, and soul to create Nu Zamrock, a form both ancestral and futuristic. “Zamrock is part of my family legacy,” she says. “It’s my voice. Being Zambian, being loud, being defiant — that’s what Zamrock is.”

“Nu Zamrock is not nostalgia,” says Sampa. “It is the future remembering where it came from. This album is a reclamation of my lineage and bloodline: it is my homage to the disruptive, rebellious spirit that Zamrock represented at its peak and carried Zambia forward with, reintroducing the genre to the world, in my own way.”

In anticipation of the announcement, Sampa released a prelude visual introduction, titled Ukwamba: (To Start). Shot in Zambia, it is a story of bloodline and the passing down of the legacy to the new generation, through song and storytelling, told through the through-line of Sampa, a different version of herself over time, and her blood Uncle George Kunda (Groovy George).

WATCH: Simon Says (Official Visualiser)

New single ‘Simon Says’ carries on this essence: it takes on the music industry’s fixation with perception, as Sampa explains; “This track is my honest reflection on the pressure of visibility—being watched, judged, and shaped by endless rules. What should a “star” look or act like? The industry seems to value numbers over artistry. Simon Says critiques the industry, where “Simon” is the system telling artists how to be.”

Fans had their first taste of Nu Zamrock with the 2025 single ‘Can’t Hold Us (feat. Mwanjé)‘, which was featured on EA’s FC26, the new Arsenal x Adidas campaign, as well as highlighted in the summer Fortnite trailer.

In this era, Sampa steps forward not simply as an artist, but as a modern griot. It’s her recognition that Nu Zamrock is not nostalgia, it is the future remembering where it came from. Carrying history forward while creating space for what comes next, this new project cements her as an African pioneer, rooted in family, legacy, roots, and self-exploration. This is bigger than an album. Equal parts history and bloodline, this is Nu Zamrock.

Nu Zamrock follows on from Sampa’s acclaimed As Above, So Below (2022) and her breakout debut The Return (2019), which was met with a series of accolades including three ARIA Awards (from six nominations), Bandcamp’s Album Of The Year, BET’s Amplified Artist of the Month, and the 2019 Australian Music Prize – the latter making Sampa the first artist to win the award twice. Sampa blew up globally, beyond Australia and gracing The Roots Picnic, NPR’s Tiny Desk series, AFROPUNK and, Later…With Jools Holland. An artist who landed on Michelle Obama’s personal playlist, who earned support from industry heavyweights like Zane Lowe, Ebro Darden and Annie Mac.