Zaiko and post Zaiko Music of Democratic Republic of the Congo (1970s-1990s)

The Stukas and Zaikp Langa Langa were the two main powerful bands to arise from that time, with Zaiko Langa Langa being a significant beginning ground for the musicians such as Pepe Feli, Bozi Boziana, Evoloko Jocker and Papa Wemba. The smoother, mellower pop sound invented in the early 1970s, which was led by Bella Bella, Shama Shama and Lipua Lipua, while Kiamangiana Verckys promoted the rougher garage-like sound launched the careers of the Pepe Kalle and Kandaw Bongo Man among others.

source of picture: musiques-afrique.com

In the beginning of the 1990s, the Congolese well-known music scene had fallen terribly, while several of the most well-known musicians of the classic period had lost their edge, and the president Mobutu’s era continued to repress the indigenous music, reinforcing to Paris status as a centre for Congolese music. Pepe Kalle, Kanda Bongo Man and Rigo Starr were all the Paris based and were the most popular Congolese musicians. The new genres such as madiaba and Tshala Mwana’s mutuashi received some popularity. The Kinshasa still had the most famous musicians, however, and include the Bimi Ombale and Dindo Yogo and in the year 1993, many of the biggest individuals and groups in Congo’s history were brought together to an event that helped to refresh the Congolese music, and also the jump started the careers of the famous bands such as Swede Swede and another important feature in Congo culture is this sui generis music. The Democratic Republic of Congo has joined its ethnic musical sources with the Cuban rumba and the merengue to give birth to Soukois. The powerful figures of the Soukous and its offshoots (like N’sombolo, rumba rock) are Franco Lumbao, Tabu Ley, Simaro Lutumba, Papa Wemba, Koffi Olomide, Kanda Bongo, Ray Lema, Mpongo Love, Abeti Masikini, Reddy Amisi, Pepe Kalle, and Nyoka Longo and one of the most talented and respected inventor of African rhumba is known as Tabu Pascal Rochereau. The Congolese recent music is also influenced in part of its politics. Zaire, then in 1965, Mobutu Sese Seko took over and in spite the massive corruption distressed  of the economic failure, and the  attempted of the military uprising in 1991, he held on until the eve of his death in the year 1997, when the president Laurent Kabila. And Kabila took over a nearly ungovernable shell of the nation. He renamed the country Democratic Republic of the Congo, but he could not remove the ruinous effects of the Belgian and Mobutu legacies, and the country is now in a state of chronic civil war. Mobutu brought a deep fear of dissent and sadly failed to develop his country’s big resources, but the walls he built around the people and his attempts to boost the cultural and national pride certainly development brought the environment the bred of Africa’s most powerful pop music. Call it soukous, rumba, Zairois, Congo music or the kwassa-kwassa, the pop sound that originating from the Congo’s capital, Kinshasa has shaped the recent African culture and more profoundly than any other.

The production of the Africa music genres that direct the imitative s of the Congolese Soukous, some of the African bands composer in Lingala, and which is the main language in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the same Congolese soukous, under the guidance of le sapeur Papa Wemba, has set a tone for a generation of the young guys who dress in expensive designer cloth. Several singers and instrumentalists who passed through the Zaiko Langa langa went on to rule the Kinshasa’s bustling music scene in the 80s with such group, which include Choc Stars and Papa Wemba’s Viva la Musica.  One of the former members of the Viva la Musica, Koffi Olomide has been indisputably one of the biggest in Zairean/ Congolese star since the early year of 90s. His chief rivals are two veterans of the group Wenge Musica, J.B Mpiana and Werrsason. The Mpiana and the Werrason are each to claims to be the inventor of the ndombolo, a pattern that spreads shouts with bursts of the vocal melody and harmony over the frantic  din of the electric guitars, synthesizers and the percuss. So pervasive it is this style that even Koffi Olomide’s current staging in the most ndombolo. The recent Democratic Republic of Congo’s music is over taking by the ndombolo dance and it is well represented by the recent Congolese superstar; Fally Ipupa is a strong performer that came from the Democratic Republic of Congo and worked with the legendary of Koffi Olomide and his groups, Quatier Latin, before the branching out his own. His performances are energetic, his delivery is unstoppable. The female fans love to watch as he whips his songs to the new heights in the time to his rotating his hips (as part of the reason he made the top ten sexiest men list). The combination of rhumba, reggae, soul and ndombolo has proved to be his magical medicine. He has also performed and sold out to the audiences in Paris and New York and continues to gain acknowledgement internationally for his music. His award include the Cesaire de la Musique award for the best male artist of the year 2007; he also received a gold disc for his album, Driot Chemin, and has been nominated for the best music clip, and the best artist in the Black Music Awards to be held in Contonou, Benin on January 12, 2008. Driot Chemin, which is produced by Maika Munan (who has worked with a popular Congolese musicians like Tabu Ley Rochereau, M’Bilia Bel, Papa Wemba, Afia Mala), has also received a accolades and is mainly famous with his fans. The video is well done and it features several ndombolo moves.