Sampa the Great Releases New Single “Cant’t Hold Us” feat. Mwanje

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 visualizer directed by Iggy London.

The song was first teased on a live performance in Brixton last month with legendary streamer DJ AG.  This week, Sampa also announced a free block party in Lusaka, Zambia, for November 22nd. The party will be hosted in conjunction with the Lusaka Thrift Market, a creative collective that puts on monthly pop-up themed fashion & art youth events in the centre of Lusaka. All 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 the new film HIM.

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.

She comments:

“Zamrock is my sound. 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.

Sampa comments:

“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.

“Can’t Hold Us” is the first taste of a forthcoming third album project, following 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, 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, and who earned support from industry heavyweights like Zane Lowe, Ebro Darden, and Annie Mac.

Sampa the Great “Cant’t Hold Us” (Feat. Mwanje) single artwork