Sampa the Great was 23, and only in her second year as a professional musician, when she and her band found themselves opening for rap superstar Kendrick Lamar, in March 2016 at an arena in Sydney, Australia.
The Zambia-born, Botswana-raised poet, rapper, songwriter, singer and producer was based Down Under at the time — more on that in a bit — and she considers this outsize event “the first huge thing that happened in my career.”
