How Zambia’s Music Sound Is Evolving
The thing about music is it's constantly changing. Sounds falling in and out of style with the frequency of skinny jeans and flared pants, and so attuned to a time and place that we can often guess the decade and country a sound was produced in, Zambia is no exception to this rule. So, we often risk sounding monotone at times. But luckily, in every era and in every country, artists are willing to push, play, and experiment, bringing styles of melodies to their countries and their world that weren’t there before.
El Mukuka
Arguably one of Zambia’s most booked DJs, both within our borders and beyond. But El Mukuka isn’t your standard “pause and play” at a party club musician. He attended the prestigious Berklee College of Music and has a wide range of instrumental musical and technical skills that have helped his afro house beats garner over 13 million streams online and counting.
El Mukuka is a blend of cultures just as much as he is a blend of sounds. Born to a Greek mother and a Zambian father and raised in Lusaka, his music contains accents of his African influence, blasts of love for electronic and overtones that stem from the kind of experimentation that can only be achieved or even attempted by a person with a wide range of musical knowledge.
His hits are numerous, danceable and infectious. With songs like Make You Mine & Aicha + (Ft. Mumba Yachi), containing a rhythmic pulse so insistent it's nearly impossible not to move while listening to them. Whilst his newer offerings, from his latest album 33, have hits like Maria (Ft. Mumba Yachi & T-Low) that maintain an addictive bassline before finding out into a kalindula beat.
Killa (Killa So’ Good)
Known as the first Zambian artist to reach 1 million monthly listeners on Spotify, Killa’s trendsetting extends beyond the numbers. The rapper and songwriter is leading a new wave of Lusaka-based artists, propelling a more polished, intentionally aware rap sound. There’s a deliberateness in each word, each pause, each gap, each delivery that lets you know you're listening to the work of an artist putting their best foot forward.
His vocabulary is as extensive as his ability to effortlessly switch the pacing of his flow to whatever the music requires. From slow to upbeat tunes, playing with words, sounds and alliteration masterfully while still showcasing a Zambian flavour in each space.
Killa blends languages just as easily as he blends genres, resulting in tracks that shift from English to Bemba to Nyanja and songs that mix hip hop core with afro fusion. His collaboration with Legend’son, Wiyu, makes a catchy chorus for a Zambian sound of jubilation. I wasn’t aware there was a word for before whilst mixing elements of Kalindula with Zamrock.
His collab Violet, with Canadian artist Connor Price, " Violet, " has surpassed 158 million streams and has displayed to the world something Zambia has always known - when it comes to lyricism, Killa is more than capable of holding his own.
Sampa the Great
She’s performed at Coachella and Glastonbury, toured with legends like Lauryn Hill and Kendrick Lamar and been the first and only artist to win the Australian Music Award twice. And yet, despite all these accolades, Sampa the Great is still in her prime. With an identity that is a mix of Zambia, Botswana, the US and Australia and a skillset that spans rapping, singing, songwriting, poetry and a penchant for the kind of compelling visuals that fans just can't stop watching.
Drawing on a wide mix of influences from hip hop to neo soul to spoken word, rnb, jazz, afro-rhtyhms. Sampa the Great’s musical output is a brew of genres rooted in hip-hop that hint at every song she’s ever loved in her life, leaving you certain only that her sound is distinctly hers. Her song, Never Forget is a powerful (and catchy) ode to Zamrock as well as her Zambian identity. In the song Bona, she fuses amapiano and Kwaito rhythms, resulting in a haunting and danceable tune. Her newest release Can’t Hold Us marks a new phase in her musical journey after a years-long hiatus, one she’s dubbed “nu zamrock”. Can’t Hold Us contains the pulse of the most infectious hip hop beat with all the grit and energy of a classic rock song.
As Sampa the Great continues to stun us with her creativity, watching her musical journey unfold, it's nearly impossible to predict what she will do or achieve next. The only hint she’s given us lies in her name and the possibility that in musical history she may go down not just as Sampa the Great…but one of the greatest.
The Future of the New Zambian Sound
So as the beats and music change, and we continue to listen along to the soundtrack of our country, whether its jumping to the “oontz oontz” of El Mukuka’s gripping Afro-house, pondering the wordplay of Killa’s insanely polished tracks or being given a lesson both on our musical history and future by Sampa the Great; keep these artists on your playlist as a reminder that there is an ever growing list of Zambian artists making incredible new musi and changing the scene if we only care to listen.
