Sampa Tembo, the Zambian-born, Botswana-raised rapper, aka Sampa the Great, wasted no time kicking off her headline set at KOKO last night. The rescheduled gig opened with the unrelenting pulse of Bona before Kojey Radical bounded onto the stage full of vim for his guest verse on IDGAF. It felt like we’d joined a party that was already well underway: a thrilling, high-energy start.
“You are part of history right now,” Tembo said as she took a moment four songs deep to address the London crowd. Zambian bands don’t tour internationally, she said while prowling the stage, backlit by pink hues. “This doesn’t happen.”
