'Bye River' Sampa the Great's Ethereal Rap

Rebecca Varidel
18th Oct 2017

Reverberating repetitive vocals and percussion draw us through a chiming ethereal portal to seemingly another time and place.

The opening eye of "Bye River" leads us to visions of indigenous red earth, spirals us to territory unknown before leading us to traditional poetry reformed as rap.

Enriching the circle with the brass patina of jazz is the evolution of local and isolated to global and worldly in a truly unique voice. Sampa the Great proffers an amazingly embracing and inspiring track.

“I’ve only been doing this for two years professionally,” she says. "It was important for me as things continued to grow to take a little time to step back from everything and say, ‘This is what I want to do with my music.’ Music is the way I express myself, the way I reflect on life, reflect on the things that I’ve experienced."

And there are many layers overlapping and sandwiched in this vast richness of open heart and spiritual expression. Each time you listen you will find new wisdom.

"Bye River" delivers an iridescent prism of light and healing which will transform the listener through the multi-faceted musical influences no matter what their starting vantage point.

Following on from recent single "Rhymes to the East" which premiered via triple j earlier this month, Sampa the Great unveils her latest offering "Bye River" and announces her forthcoming mixtape Bird And The BEE9. Out Friday, November 10th on Big Dada, Birds And The BEE9 is a contemporary statement in record that is both concurrently deeply personal and outward-looking.