PRIVATE LIFE AND PERSONALITY
Jean-jacques kibinda pembelé was born on 8 of august of 1958 in kinshasa in a family of 8 children in whicb he is the second oldest
he is a calm but authoritative person when he feels attacked,and had the reputation of loving fights during his childhood in his quarter of matete,well known in kinshasa for being one of the most or the most prolific arear in term of sportsmen and more particuly in martial arts
he was expected to follow foosteps of his father who was a great goalkeeper in vita club,and was even nicknamed bitu djeni(a reverse of tubilandu aka tubi his idol,the goalkeeper who replaced his dad who retired to become a politician later on,and djeni for jean)
his passion for music will then drag him away from football when at 16 he is on the verge of signing for big congolese clubs as his reputation has gone well above quarter level
he then his goalkeeper gloves on less often and start spending more time in music which will become his job much later after his university years
jean-jacques is father of 6 children and grandfather of 3 and is married to same wife since 1994
HIS ROLE MODELS AND DEBUT AS A MUSICIAN
karmapa's models are franco luambo with his ability of singing about almost every aspect of society instead of only love and more over the whole ok jazz with their odemba music,grand kallé kabasele for his cuban influence,tabu ley for his lyricism and kester emeneya vhose voice he was imitating before becoming the professional singer we know
he learns his first notes with one of his uncle who is a piano player then integrates in 1976 traditional group chem chem yetu with the likes of lambio lambio,stella uomo,timo lolo(future members of viva la musica)
but his parents are not letting him easily perform and rehearse with them,as he joins fine arts academy where he develops strong relationships with felix wazekwa,the younger brother of his best friend,both then share time at school together,time in judo and karaté clubs and of course their common passion which is music
both start rehearsing in the early 1980's in the folkloric group of kin verso but in 1984,one year before wazekwa,he is send to europe to study and become later a chartered accountant
once in france he starts collaboration with several artists like johnny bokelo,lokassa ya mbongo and so on
his father who was reluctant to let him become a musician encourages him to record songs on his own after hearing from wazekwa that his children was giving songs to famous artists
but jean jacques does not want to rush into musical career as he already has his job in which he has a comfortable life
its only in 2001,after assisting to studio sessions of wazekwa's album signature and participating in yo nani that he really is motivated about starting his career and resigns from his job to start preparing his album
this is the birth of karmapa,the prince of rumba
FROM FIRST ALBUM TO LE MILLIONAIRE
jean jacques creates his nickname karmapa fom the the k of kibinda and the p of pembelé(as it is first written karma pa,but he changes it later to karmapa to avoid being likened to karma pa of buddhism) and explains the reverse r of his name as a symbole of revolution and return to rumba,when congolese music dominated by dance(ndombolo and so on)
he records in paris his first album je m'apelle toi love moi with the help of his friend beniko popolipo and several other experienced artists
he wins revelation of the year award with that album and is nominated at KORA 2004 and creates his own group rive droite klass k and one year later after impressing at the fikin in 2004 is offered a whole set of instruments
this motivates him recording his second album le temps de l'amour which earns him album of the year award but during the recording two times rumours are spread in kinshasa that karmapa is dead whereas he is in france in studio with phillipe guez
But in the meantime a conflict had started with his friend wazekwa who he attacked on tv's as he was told that to make it in congo you have to have a rival and create polemic and when him and wazekwa meet at kora 2004 wazekwa refuses to shake his hands and tells him "you are not my brother,if you were you would not attack me like that,and without informing me before"and from 2004 to 2006 they do not talk to each other anymore
but in 2006,karmapa's dad dies and wazekwa surprise him at funerals and both are among those who hold the coffin and to seal their reconciliation him and wazekwa start a tribute song together
wazekwa tries to convince primus giving him a sponsorship contract but they are reluctant as he is much more into rumbas than generiques
one year after,he releases album riposte with stronger generiques especially lifolototo,three of his musicians are then stolen by koffi olomide ,who he criticized over conflict with wazekw,while he is gone in europe to finish clips
two years aftet that he starts recording album le millionaire,but goes through a lot of problems,first financially as he has no sponsor and also the potential producers are not serious so he has to stop studio session about 20 times
in 2010 when he has saved enough funds to fund album recording,clips and promotion on his own he restart studio sessions recording two songs(one generique and one rumba)to announce the rest of album but the rumba is censored as its lyrics are seen as an hidden attack to some important authorities and karmapa is jailed for one week and released
when he continues recording album,his hard disk has serious technical problems and he loses everything and this makes him lose motivation
he takes one year off,to focus on concerts and also his personal business in france(he just opened a barbershop then in a french city and another one in paris suburbs)
in 2012 he restarts recording album le millionaire which is released in 2013 and receives a lot of positive reactions and also is quite well sold,
