Tutu Caludji's animations was on point on Damien Aziwa's Hors La Loi album. His prime was from the mid 1990's-early 2000's.
It's fact that he started as a vocalist, but due to Roberta Wunda's high energy, he decided to do the singing-animation style. The style that is very popular in today's Congolese scene.
We also cannot forget that Tutu Caludji paved the way for guys like Mboshi Lipasa, CNN Alligator, Eclipse Musoso, Brigade and many more.
Bill is a MAJOR force. He can dance, create new cries, sing and compose. Bill has birthed guys such as Bercy, DJ Arafat (RIP), Gessac, Kerozene and much more.
However, there are also OG's in atalaku history that paved the way. Such as Nono Monzuluku of Zaiko Langa Langa and of course Djouna Mumbafu of Empire Bakuba, the King!
Globally, if you take legal and illegal sales into account, those albums sold hundreds of thousands, even millions.
Generally, this obsession with sales in France is very stupid.
Until we as Congolese will think as colonized peoe it will be like that. Until we gonna give our babies French names instead of Congolese ones and until we will value a person on how much good french he speaks nothing will change. Even this whole Bercy obsession of artists and France obsession with Congolese artists it is very stupid and colonized mind like
Its doesn't have something to do with having a colonized mind. Those stuff about album sales in Dr Congo doesn't exist anymore since the big crisis made by the MPR-regime, so they switched it to Europe where there is a big community since the mid '90s. Back in the 60s and 70s Congolese artists used often to brag about the sales they made in DR Congo, artists like Lutumba Simaro and Evoloko Lay receiving gold records from Soneca. Since 1991 they don't have those cd/disc facotries in Kinshasa, also those discs they sold are in reality piracy cds, because they pay zero tax to Socoda/Soneca and the governement. So those albums sales don't count and the artists don't really make alot of money from the albums they sell in Kinshasa, most albums don't even arrive in other cities (except those made by Libanese, Chinese and Indian pople) .They also talk often about the album sales they made in France, because Congolese artists used to brag/lie about having received a gold record in France which wasn't true with other artists also wanted to do the same thing and falling in the same trap. Starting then also to lie to the public and creating confusion by saying that they received a gold record because of the albums they sold around the world while every country has his own music recording certification (SABAM for Belgium, Sacem/Snep for France, IRAA for USA, etc.). The French media exposed Papa Wemba with that when he got arrested, mocking him that he only sold 6.000 copies for Bakala Dia Kuba in France while it was a big succes in the Congolese community of France. Zacharie Bababaswe made back in 2003 a whole article about those albums sales and in 1999 released a VHS on the market where he visited with King Kester Emeneya SACEM to look if there was a Congolese artist who received a gold record in France.
Also you don't have mythic musichalls in Kinshasa. We had the famous Cine Palladium where Papa Wemba, Tabu Ley, Franco Luambo Makiadi and Abeti Masikini gave memorable shows, but it got abandoned in the 80s. They tried to renovate it in 1996, changing the name into Cinemax, but the governement sold it to Libanese businessmen in 2004 who broke it down. The obession with Bercy started after that Koffi Olomide there. Before 1999 nobody outside France knew even the existence of Bercy. It started to get know when Koffi started to promote his show after just having released Droit de Veto on the market.
It was not that they wanted to look like white people, it was that they saw it as victory for the African diaspora living in Europe for having filled the biggest musichall of Paris without being native inhabitants and feeling themselves not respected. But it went quickly wrong because other Congolese artists wanted then to prove that they were more popular then the other one by having a bigger crowd at Bercy and those who performed before them trying to sabote those shows (the Congolese mentality, not wanted to accept other succes). The same thing happened in Congo itself with Stade des Martyrs.
Touring. Touring increase mere exposure to more people greater than the sample size than they're used too. Artists should think strategically.
The Afro Diaspora is very grande at best. The Caribbean and Latin America (Colombia, Brazil, etc) has a big population of Afro descent people. This is why folks like Mbilia Bel, Tabu Ley, Pepe Kalle, Aurlus Mabele, Kanda Bongo, etc took advantage. If artists toured there instead of choosing just Europe, more streams and revenue would be generated.
General Defao was on his way to becoming a megastar but unfortunately, the collapse of Big Stars along with other personal reasons (political, economical) has stunted his way.
He was very famous in the 90s, especially when Amour Interdit came out. The Famille Kikuta remix with Mboka Liya propelled his stardom, when Sala Noki came, that brought him even more success with the concert in Abidjan. The Ndombolo era was a great period fr.
That R Kelly interview was strange seeing him cry in a public outburst but not rly against the dude. From the interview, we seen with the two young girls, it looks like their parents made a deal with them to set up R Kelly for riches and resources. Sounds like a fucked up situation.
At the same time, these individuals had a choice not to mess with R Kelly. They weren't coerced nor pressured with a shotgun in their mouth to do the deed.
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