Technically, Birds and the BEE9 is a mixtape, intended to whet appetites for this Sydney-based rapper’s debut album proper, due next year. But categories dissolve around Sampa Tembo – born in Zambia, raised in Botswana and now based in Australia, having spent time in California. Though swaggeringly up to date in places, her tracks sound far closer to Lauryn Hill than they do to 2017’s breakout star Cardi B, nodding to reggae, soul and jazz. The complex question of identity keeps cropping up. “How you supposed to be black down under?” Tembo wonders on Bye River; another track, Black Girl Majik, has some smooth and persuasive solutions.
