9 Lives: Sampa The Great tells us why her AMP-winning ‘Birds and the BEE9’ has a strong link to the number 9

When Sampa The Great’s album Birds and the BEE9 was last week announced as the winner of the 13th Australian Music Prize (AMP) It’s quite possible she may not have been that surprised.

You see, the AMP win was announced on March 9 – and Number 9 had already played a large role in the album’s history.

Not the least, of course, that it’s in the album title.

But the 23-year-old Zambian-born Botswana-raised rapper and singer also secretly refers to the track ‘Protect Your Queen’ as ‘9’ – because when she was writing it, she kept seeing Number 9 everywhere – on the radio, the fridge, microwave and on her phone.

“I was born on August 9,” she related to TMN yesterday, just before going on stage at WOMADelaide.

“I’m a Leo, I’ve always looked forward to the 9th, and 9 is always been my lucky number.”

At the AMP winner unveiling, at Melbourne Town Hall, coming after Ed Sheeran’s manager Stuart Camp’s AMPed Up In Conversation session, Sampa Tembo thanked the invited audience, “I didn’t see any of this in my periphery when I came to Australia.

“To have you guys listen to that, and to acknowledge that there are still people who still need to be heard, and then to say this is the album you want to award — it means so much to me. Thank you so much.

“I feel like a lot of voices that are not heard get to be heard through this. And that’s a good step.”

In the wake of its win, Birds and the BEE9 is currently getting a reappraisal – not about why 19 judges trumped it over a list of some mighty strong contenders, but why her audience connected in the first place.

From TMN’s perspective, Birds and the BEE9derives a strength and spirituality that is inherent in African music.

It also a deadly focus, from the commitment she made to herself when she arrived as a 20-year-old in Sydney and did an audio engineering course (she now lives in Melbourne).

Her father was a DJ and her mother a dancer in Botswana but she was the first to take up music professionally.

The centre of her music making was her advice to her younger siblings – create with a purpose, not as a way to make money.

Asked to herself analyse what made Birds and the BEE9 connect, Tembo tells TMN, “You don’ really know why it’s connected.

“For me, it was the honesty. I was coming from a place where I was honest about being confused about certain things and the way it affected people.

“It was an uncomfortable conversation about race and identity in Australia.

“These were conversations that had to be had, and I think the AMP win really validated those conversations.”

The strongest example of the record’s dialogue is the remarkable gospel-tinged spiritual ‘Bye River’ about being inspired by remarkable black women – a track which features her younger sister Mwanje Tembo.

She still gets emotional about singing the song onstage, “especially when I see the way the audience react. It’s an intimate song, and we always gets the audience to sing along.”

‘Healing’ uses chants to churn out what caused the hurt in the first place.

An alternate version features NT duo Electric Fields to denotes the indigenous link for those who live on this land.

‘Black Girl Magik’ laments how kids of colour grow up under-represented in mainstream culture (and which features Botswana singer Nicole Gumbe).

Birds and the BEE9 also fires on a strong music level. She worked with a number of beatmaster and instrumentalist collaborators including MC Remi, Kews Darko, Sensible J and Alejandro ‘JJ’ Apro.

The chemistry was obvious, as many of the tracks like ‘Flowers’ and ‘Protect Your Queen’ came quickly.

Music journalist Mikey Cahill, one of the 19 AMP judges, commented, “One of our judges summed it up well: The Birds and the BEE9 has an openness to the future.

“Sampa came to us from Zambia, a petite poet using hip-hop and soul to connect and hit the ground gunning, piquing our interest with her debut The Great Mixtape.

“Then she came through with this extraordinary 13-track record.

“It’s not Turn-Up music, it goes super-deep.

“We’ll still be playing this 50 years in the future; you and your kids will be too.”

Tambo tells TMN that much of the $30,000 prize will go towards setting up a studio so she can continually keep making new music.

She used to read avidly when she was younger. “Now I write more, it’s my strongest point.

“I write things in my notebook, and I keep a regular diary to put down my thoughts and reflections.”

As for how has her audience changed in the last 12 months, “It’s reached outside Australia. We’re able to go to Europe and see people, and we’re able to go to United States and see people.”

Expanding her international presence is something she’s going to devote to for most of 2018.

Sampa The Great’s win follows previous AMP winners:

2016 – Reclaim Australia by A.B.Original

2015 – Sometimes I Sit And Think, Sometimes I Just Sit by Courtney Barnett

2014 – Raw X Infinity by REMI

2013 – Not Art by Big Scary

2012 – Hyperparadise by Hermitude

2011 – Prisoner by The Jezabels

2010 – Bliss Release by Cloud Control

2009 – Wonder by Lisa Mitchell

2008 – Primary Colours by Eddie Current Suppression Ring

2007 – Devil’s Elbow by The Mess Hall

2006 – Moo, You Bloody Choir by Augie March

2005 – Wait Long By The River and the Bodies of Your Enemies Will Float By by The Drones