Halifax Artist Aquakultre Releases Single & Video, “Gallows”

Multi-award-winning Halifax singer, rapper, composer and storyteller Aquakultre aka Lance Sampson releases the new single and video for “Gallows,” a profoundly reflective prison song that raises awareness and acts as a call to action surrounding the wrongful conviction of his great-great-grandfather Daniel P. Sampson, the last person to be executed in Halifax as a result of systemic anti-Black racism in Canada’s legal system.

Explains Aquakultre:

“My great-great-grandfather, Daniel Perry Sampson, was wrongfully convicted of murder and executed in 1935. His story was told to me by my grandmother, Carolyn Sampson, who always recognized that there was something fishy, something not right about what happened to her grandfather. I got on that research 90 years later, and she was right; his case was a miscarriage of justice. The song is written from his perspective, in his final moments before being hanged at the Halifax courthouse.”

The “Gallows” music video, directed by Sobaz Benjamin, displays powerful scenes centred around spirituality, tyranny, protest, and redemption.

The respected film and video director, known for his documentary Race Is a Four Letter Word, comments:

“‘Gallows’ is not simply about death, punishment, or execution; it is a metaphor for the centuries-long weight placed upon Black bodies, Black families, Black memory, and Black imagination. It is about the architecture of oppression, yes, but far more profoundly, it is about what we have done with that. It is about the miracle of transformation.”

On March 7, the 90th anniversary of Daniel’s execution, the Sampson family, represented by Lance, filed an application to have the case reviewed by the Minister of Justice. They have authorized their lawyer to set up Fundrazr to raise funds toward the legal hard costs (i.e. court fees, disbursements, travel costs) of the appeal.

Aquakultre “Gallows” single artwork