SAMPA THE GREAT RELEASES NEW SINGLE “CAN’T HOLD US FT. MWANJE”
SAMPA THE GREAT SET TO HOST LUSAKA BLOCK PARTY NOVEMBER 22ND
Sampa the Great releases her brand new single “Can’t Hold Us” via Loma Vista Recordings, marking the beginning of a new era for the Zambian musician and rapper. The track is included in EAFC 26 and will be dropped into in-game playlists from today. “Can’t Hold Us” is also accompanied by an official visualiser directed by Iggy London.
The song was first teased on a live performance in Brixton last month with legendary streamer DJ AG – watch back here. Sampa also this week announced a free block party in Lusaka, Zambia for November 22nd. The party will be hosted in conjuncton with the Lusaka Thrift Market, a creative collective who put on monthly pop-up themed fashion & art youth events in the centre of Lusaka. Any profits from the event will go back into the local creative community. In September, Sampa also released an exclusive new track ‘GOAT’ for the soundtrack of new film HIM – listen here.
As she embarks on a new era, Sampa finds herself reimagining Zamrock – that daring fusion of rock, funk and African rhythm – through her own lens, merging it with hip-hop, poetry, and soul to create Nu Zamrock, a form both ancestral and futuristic. “Zamrock is my sound,” she says. “It’s my voice. Being Zambian, being loud, being defiant — that’s what Zamrock is.”
“Can’t Hold Us” stands as a declaration of that awakening: a fierce statement of arrival that fuses the raw energy of rock, hip-hop, soul, and Zambian rhythm into a sound that’s entirely her own. “This is the declaration track. I’m saying: I’ve stepped into my power, into my sound, into my purpose. I’ve claimed this thing — Nu Zamrock — as something of my own, something I’m shaping in real time. And in this new form, with this much clarity and drive? You can’t hold us. You can’t stop us. Not anymore.” Radiating confidence and creative freedom, “Can’t Hold Us” captures Sampa’s evolution into an artist fully in command of her voice, her heritage, and her moment.