Coming in at just under 40-minutes, Zambian-born, Botswana-raised rapper and poet Sampa the Great has released her sophomore full-length, As Above, So Below, via Loma Vista Recordings. Featuring appearances from the likes of Denzel Curry, Joey Bada$$, and Sampa's own sister, Mwanjé, As Above, So Below is an 11-track meditation on Africa, past and present, as well as a passionate ode to the ideal self. In Sampa the Great's case, this ideal comes from her "Eve" mentality, where femininity proves as divine as heritage.

Since 2015, Sampa the Great has conquered the hip-hop scene of her (then) adoptive country Australia as a two-time Australian Music Prize winner with her 2017 mixtape, Birds and the Bee9, and 2019 full-length, The Return. The Return was an epic presentation of intellect, personality, and southern African influences infused with jazz, neo-soul, spoken word, Amapiano, and hip-hop. But with As Above, So Below, Sampa the Great leans hard into the sounds of mid-century Zambian psychedelia, Zamrock. Co-producing for the first time alongside the "African Timbaland", Mag44, As Above, So Below proves to be Sampa the Great's most cohesive offering to date, sprinkling empowerment and acceptance across its fierce exploration of self-reflection. The result is an impressively organic presentation of homegrown revelations.

Upon relocation to Zambia during the COVID-19 pandemic, Sampa the Great's reconnection with her African developmental influences, including the Zambian-rooted Bemba language, is a full circle view of the creative potential of the continent's diaspora, as well as its rich and eclectic local history. Take, for example, lead single "Never Forget," featuring sister Mwanjé, cousin Tio Nason and local rapper Chef 187, on perhaps the album's most Afro-centric track. The latter explains (translated from Bemba):

We leave footprints on every piece of earth we tread upon, 

or proclaiming in English,

Future ancient our souls they'll never get it
Aye, information passed down for generation
Future ancients our souls they'll never get it 
They will never forget. 

"Can I Live" then takes the album's Zamrock influences to their peak courtesy of a collaboration with seminal 70s genre band W.I.T.C.H. This provides the album's best example of Sampa the Great's oft-tumultuous relationship with gender and racial equality, opening with the un-interpretational explication "Can I...Live". It is a sentiment then echoed on album closer "Let Me Be Great", collaborating with multi-Grammy Award Beninese singer Angeliqué Kidjo.

Further album highlights include "Lane", featuring Florida rapper Denzel Curry, a journey through braggadocio set against a withdrawn organ-led production with such proclamations as "I ain't underrated, I'm just under hate". This focus on confidence also screams through "IDGAF", featuring London rapper Korey Radical, opening with "They just tripping / Throw 'em / Lately, I don't give a fuck". Then, "Lo Rain" offers the clearest example of Sampa the Great's acrobatic dexterity between gravelly rapping and effortless singing.

Though "Eve" is never explicitly mentioned anywhere on As Above, So Below, unlike on her ARIA Award-winning 2019 single "Final Form", the ethos is everywhere, chanting at one point on "Shadows":

I can be hard, I can be soft, I can be everything under the stars,

 as the many sides of this unapologetic artist come clearly into the fore.