{"id":62451,"date":"2013-10-31T14:32:39","date_gmt":"2013-10-31T14:32:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sierraexpressmedia.com\/?p=62451"},"modified":"2013-10-31T14:32:39","modified_gmt":"2013-10-31T14:32:39","slug":"the-quiet-rise-of-sampha-sisay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/?p=62451","title":{"rendered":"The quiet rise of Sampha Sisay"},"content":{"rendered":"

When hip hop legend Drake premiered his new single \u201cToo Much\u201d on the hugely popular American talk show \u2013 Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, many Sierra Leonean viewers wondered about Sampha – the keyboard player with the Sierra Leonean name whose haunting vocals made the track so distinctive. Those observant enough to notice Sampha\u2019s startling resemblance to Sierra Rutile\u2019s CEO John Sisay wouldn\u2019t be surprised to learn that the two are brothers.\u00a0 (Photo:\u00a0 Sampha Sisay)<\/em><\/p>\n

Sampha Sisay, the youngest of the five Sisay brothers, has been quietly but steadily becoming London\u2019s most talked about singer\/producer. \u00a0\u00a0While his stand-out vocal, production and keyboard contribution to Drake\u2019s album has brought him to the attention of a much wider and more commercial audience, he is already well known for an eclectic body of work which includes frequent collaborations with the musical project SBTRKT and Mercury Prize nominated Jessie Ware, as well as two solo EPs on the London-based Young Turks label.\u00a0 Reviewers have described \u2018Dual\u2019, his most recent solo work, as a \u201cbrief but dazzling display of instrumental and vocal talent,\u201d \u201cemotionally compelling\u201d, and \u201ca unique talent.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pervasive emotional honesty in Sampha\u2019s solo work is rooted in his upbringing.\u00a0 Visitors to the lively London house where he grew up will remember the late Joe Sisay, Sampha\u2019s father, as a great host, conversationalist and music lover.\u00a0 Discussions about everything from music to politics, world affairs to sport, were set against of the backdrop of Mr Sisay\u2019s extensive and varied music collection.\u00a0 When, one day he brought home a piano, the musical backdrop increasingly became the sound of Sampha teaching himself how to play the piano.<\/p>\n

Sampha\u2019s quiet but unmistakable star potential has not gone unnoticed.\u00a0 Continuing the genre-defying trajectory of his career so far, a split single with Mercury Award Winning indie pop group the xx is due for release this month and there is also the much-talked about partnership with Solange Knowles in the offing.\u00a0 Ms Knowles\u2019 new boutique label Saint Records recently announced that it would be releasing a compilation called Saint Heron, featuring 12 original songs from an all-star list of very contemporary left-of-centre R&B artists, which includes Sampha.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0He said in a recent interview:\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s a great thing to feel like you\u2019re not by yourself and people understand where you\u2019re coming from,\u201d which would seem to suggest that we will be seeing much more solo work from this unassuming but hugely talented Sierra Leonean.<\/p>\n

Stay with Sierra Express Media, for your trusted place in news!<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When hip hop legend Drake premiered his new single \u201cToo Much\u201d on the hugely popular American talk show \u2013 Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, many […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":62452,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[671,745,1191],"tags":[17260,14391,17111,17261,17262],"class_list":["post-62451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-life-and-entertainment","category-music","tag-drake","tag-john-sisay","tag-sampha-sisay","tag-sierra-leonean-musicians","tag-solange-knowles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/62452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}