Back in '04 Tabu Ley criticized Koffi for loosing his tcha tcho identity. The older musicians and journalists were stating that the 3-4 gen artists were doing too much dance music to be taken seriously. Koffi took the criticism personally and vowed to have much more Tcha tcho in next album (Monde arabe). Originally when Monde arabe was first announced in '02-'03 it was supposed to have the same structure as Effrakata.

Koffi has long been the de facto trendsetter, so following Monde arabe artists followed suit. Fans were initially disappointed by the lack of sebenes, but the album grew on people over time because of the quality of the rhumbas.

Also, donors nowadays strongly prefer to have the songs they purchase to be rhumbas.

Correct me if I'm wrong, the last significant album with equal parts sebene/rhumba was Werra's Témoignage.

In my opinion, artists should have found a middle ground, rather than eliminating sebenes, which have led to the numerous 95% rhumba albums released over the last 10 years. It's the generiques and sebene songs that have greatly aided the artists in becoming big stars. F'victeam seems to heading back to old days with well done sebene songs. Alvarito Solo's Rosendan for example

It really pains me that they don't anymore. I despise rhumba(only like it when is has a little nice sebene to it) now because I realized it must be easier for the artists to create. It just seems like they got lazy. Sebene was what made congolese music for me and it's pretty underwhelming that it's overlooked by them now. Why did koffi have to listen to those lame journalists? I really wanted to see how the original monde arabe would have been. There's a reason why koffi and many other Congolese artist had their best albums from the mid 90s to the early 2000s. Bring back the sebene!

i would not even say its solely koffi who is behind it,i would say its the shift towards a more solo-like career for all our leaders which also lead indirectly to the phenomenon of generation fally ferre
if you pay attention very well,the group's still existed and exist but from 2004 there was a lot of focus on the leader to the extent than even group albums were seen as leaders' albums
so since leaders now had more pressure on their shoulders they felt need to prove worth with rumbas
rumbas were not neglected in the past but were put in strategic positions on cd's in order to be balanced with sebene songs and then be noticeable due to being  at best equal to the number of sebene
the problems with ngulu affair and debut of problems with combattants lead to the musician adopting a much more commercial approach of music
so to make more money,they had to have less freedom of playing their music,in the past it was "masta or vieux,i'll do a song to thank for all the good things you did to me" and the person had zero influence on how the song would be in most cases, so it was a good mix of rumba which is the old school music and the zaiko wenge style
and the success of monde arabe and arrival of karmapa from nowhere with beautiful and succesful rumbas for influent donors paved way for that change
i remember ferre for example saying how pissed joao ndombele was that his song was a sebene one in qui est derriere toi
people were demanding rumbas and a polemic had started about leaders proving they can sing instead of relying on their "children"

and the success of monde arabe and arrival of karmapa from nowhere with beautiful and succesful rumbas for influent donors paved way for that change
i remember ferre for example saying how pissed joao ndombele was that his song was a sebene one in qui est derriere toi
people were demanding rumbas and a polemic had started about leaders proving they can sing instead of relying on their "children"

^ My memory is a bit blurry, didn't seigneur Ley strongy praise Karmapa in one his interviews regarding the rhumbas of his first album? It seemed to really annoy Koffi, although he saw him as a nobody then (2004-5 or so).

the same koffi (maybe to attract karmapa into maisha and do him a "wazekwa") called karmapa through donors to tell him he was the guy who he sees as his heir so he would like them to become friends but karmapa rejected joining maisha and since then they have been into zero contact

Back in '04 Tabu Ley criticized Koffi for loosing his tcha tcho identity. The older musicians and journalists were stating that the 3-4 gen artists were doing too much dance music to be taken seriously. Koffi took the criticism personally and vowed to have much more Tcha tcho in next album (Monde arabe). Originally when Monde arabe was first announced in '02-'03 it was supposed to have the same structure as Effrakata.

Koffi has long been the de facto trendsetter, so following Monde arabe artists followed suit. Fans were initially disappointed by the lack of sebenes, but the album grew on people over time because of the quality of the rhumbas.

no disrespect to tabu ley but he shouldn't have said anything cause him saying that killed the sebene formula and koffi shouldn't have taken the bait and eliminating sebene, plus I didn't really like monde arabe i thought it was okay but not excellent no way
and everyone needs to stop with that coup decalle crap its very annoying koffi's the worst

How can musicans say they want Congolese music to grow if they would disband a group?? If they do that to a group then maybe they might do it to a solo artist.