Background;

After the success of Couvre-Feu, Wenge El Paris was voted Best Group of the Year 1998. Couvre-Feu won Best Album of the Year, Marie Paul was named Best Star of the Year, Manda Chante Best Singer and Bizima Best Atalaku. However, before the end of 1998, there were several problems within the group. At one point, Manda Chante decided to leave El Paris and form Wenge Référence after he was beaten by Marie Paul’s bodyguard, Manix, while trying to enter the group’s rehearsal place. This happened at a time when tour promoters were preparing a European tour. Because of Manda Chante’s departure, concert-promoters started to have doubts and eventually decided to cancel the tour.



Shortly after the cancellation, Wenge El Paris went on an African tour instead, touring Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, and Kenya. While the group spent months abroad, the press claimed that Wenge El Paris was finished and started to write negative articles, being aware about several incidents that took place (fights between the bandleader and musicians) and the group at some point being stuck in one of these countries. In July 1999, El Paris returned after seven months of absence and performed at the Esplanade of the Palais du Peuple. The success of the show led and crowds still following Marie Paul when getting through the streets, made the press concluded, “Marie Paul reste tel qu’il est” (Marie Paul remains the same).
During the same period, Marie Paul came into contact with the producer Abeto Center, who awarded him a red BMW and promised to organize a European tour. Abeto Center would produce several concerts for Wenge El Paris in Kinshasa, including the concert at Stade Tata Raphaël (formerly known as Stade du 20 Mai). At the same time he would sell cassettes in Europe of his concerts. The succes of the show at Stade Tata Raphael, made him enter Wenge El Paris in studio, in the hope to produce their upcoming album in the future. Wenge El Paris using recording files of Stade Tata Raphael, correcting the vocal-lines at Studio Meko and adding stadium-noises, which they created themselves in the studio. Like the cassette of the event, the cd would get named Evenement Jaune. While in Europe, it kept Wenge El Paris alive despite Manda Chante’s departure, which was perceived as the end of the group, the live-album seriously flopped in Kinshasa because of logistic and distribution problems.





Despite the successes, public attention remained focused on the rivalry between JB Mpiana and Werrason. Marie Paul was often perceived as pro-Werrason because he openly supported him on television and frequently made guest appearances at Wenge Maison Mère shows. Despite the incident the previous year at the Tokufa Pona Congo event in September 1998 at Stade des Martyrs, there were no attacks coming from the Wenge El Paris camp and Werrason continued to mention Marie Paul in Coco Madimba during the concerts. But upon his return in Kinshasa, Marie Paul did an interview where he came with a yellow card. He declared that he was giving Werrason a warning for being ungrateful and he would not only attack Werrason but JB Mpiana as well, opening a war on two fronts. The upcoming Wenge El Paris album was therefore named Carte Jaune. Having already a bad name for attacking bandleaders and elders, Marie Paul would tarnish his image as bandleader by doing multiple interviews to attack Werrason instead of letting his musicians do that job.

In December 1999, when the band was preparing to tour Europe, Abeto Center’s visa applications were unfortunately rejected. It was a huge disappointment for both the band members and Marie Paul. For these reasons, Bizima decided to leave the group, as he hoped to perform in Europe like his childhood friends Bill Clinton Kalonji and Gentamicine Lissimo. He would join Quartier Latin, coming with new cri’s like Tsholilo and Coco Wele, slowly preparing the Bercy with them. Bizima’s departure was a huge blow to the Wenge El Paris and different atalaku’s would getting tested to replace him.
Early February 2000, Wenge Maison Mère announced a concert at the Stade des Martyrs scheduled for 26 February 2000. In response, Dello Bass went on television with his peers to react. He declared that people would witness a “knock-out from two meters away” and announced that Wenge El Paris would organize an event on the same date at the YMCA in Matongé. In reality, Marie Paul was not truly motivated for a fara-fara, but pushed by Dello Bass and members of his entourage, he accepted the challenge and the preparations slowly began.

In the run-up to the event, Werrason decided that he would arrive at the Stade des Martyrs on a motorcycle, wanting to replicate Johnny Hallyday’s famous entrances at the Parc des Princes. As he had done before at the Palais du Peuple, he organized a parade on the way to the venue. He left his house in Ma Campagne (Ngaliema) heading towards Bandal. However, instead of going directly to the stadium, he wanted to send a message to Wenge El Paris by demonstrating his supremacy and attracting their crowd.He therefore passed through Matongé. But when he arrived there, Wenge El Paris fans began throwing stones at him. Werrason lost his balance and fell. He quickly tried to get back on his motorcycle but fell again, twice, until a bodyguard intervened and brought him to the jeep where Adolphe was waiting. A few meters later, he mounted the motorcycle again and continued to the Stade des Martyrs, entering the stadium with it.

For El Paris supporters, this aggression was seen as a victory. Wenge El Paris later performed at the YMCA, where atalaku Patou Bofosa mocked Werrason with the chant: “Frère Omoni, K.O. debout?” Although Werrason received a lot of praise for filling the Stade des Martyrs, Wenge El Paris also generated buzz because of the confrontation at the YMCA. However, neutral fans were shocked by the way Werrason had been attacked with stones. Wenge El Paris would later adopt K.O. Debout as the title of their upcoming album.

Shortly after the YMCA show, things became quiet around the group, and not long afterwards they went for a tour in South Africa. While there, the businesswoman Frida Mushi (Zulu 21), who had sponsored them several times in the past, contacted them to express her interest in organizing a European tour. Upon returning to Kinshasa, Wenge El Paris went on television to announce that they would soon travel to Europe. The news was received with skepticism, as the group had been promising such a trip since 1994. In other interviews, they appeared on TV alongside businessman P.D.G. Nkoku Costa, who promised to finance the visa’s and to produce the K.O. Debout album. To prepare both the tour and the album, the group went into seclusion in Kinkole. The recordings of K.O. Debout took place at Studio Meko.

Although Frida wanted the same lineup as during Couvre-Feu, Marie Paul made several changes, which led to a some of drama. Atalaku Doukouré, who was part of the group since they arrived in 1993, was left behind, because of Marie Paul not being happy for his indiscipline during the tour of South Africa
The late Belis Mfumu Luvutula, part of the administrative staff and formerly the first president of Wenge 4x4, obtained a visa. However, guitarist Pitshou Santiago’s request was denied and Pitshou traveled using Belis’s passport.This was a huge disappointment for Belis, who had played a key role in creating fan clubs across Kinshasa with his friend Jules Biselele (R.I.P.) after the founding of Wenge Aile Paris. He had even been jailed for a time after being sued by Didier Masela, Werrason, and JB Mpiana. Belis had promised himself he wanted nothing more to do with music.

Alain Mwepu was also left behind, despite his importance to the group, his past in Wenge 4x4 and 7 years in Wenge El Paris. Marie Paul was unhappy that musicians seemed to respect Alain Mwepu more than him and still holding grudges from earlier confrontations abroad.
Celezino was selected, as Marie Paul appreciated how actively he defended Wenge El Paris on television and attacked Adolphe Dominguez, who often ignored Marie Paul when being  asked about him. Digital Lidjo was also chosen, while Pitshou Volcan was left behind.
Kene-Kene nearly missed the trip because he had been close to joining Wenge BCBG a few months earlier, but he was saved by Frida, who insisted he be included.

To everyone’s surprise, former Anti-Choc guitarist Janvier Okota, who had failed to make it to Bercy with Quartier Latin, was placed on the European list despite not even having spent a full year with Wenge El Paris.
Although being left behind (Babel Bingema, Pitshou Volcan, Doukouré, Alain Mwepu, etc.) were calmed down by Marie Paul’s ex’wife Valerie Tambwe, who said that there would be second team that would get into Europe the following month. But it didn’t happen.
Wenge El Paris traveled through Brazzaville to Paris and performed the same day, on 2 December 2000 at LSC. It was their first European concert since 1993, after seven years of being stuck in Kinshasa. Artists such as the late Fafa de Molokai, guitarist Collégien Zola, César Loboko (formerly of Wenge Aile Paris) and Ricoco Bulambemba attended the show.

Unlike other groups, who would typically arrive several days in advance to promote themselves in known restaurants and nightclubs of the Congolese community in Paris, Wenge El Paris did not have time to do so. Sadly, they performed in an almost empty LSC, as the concertpromoter Claude Mussay taught that Marie Paul would sell it easily out with the power of pulling huge crowds in Kinshasa.



Just as had happened during the famous JB Mpiana show there, the press were harsh towards Wenge El Paris, writing negative articles about them. The images that were showed in Kinshasa deceived El Paris-fans and them in return saying that the low attendance was due to the rain, being a “spiritual attack” from rivals, not realizing that European rain being different from the rain in Congo.

For years, the LSC concert of El Paris became a reference point. Whenever an artist would plan an event at LSC, the press would question if the show would either succeed like Academia or fail like El Paris.

People in Europe knew Wenge El Paris had announced their arrival, but many did not believe it because the promise had been repeated every year for seven years. Next to it, the group still did not have a new album on the market. Realizing the mistake, a new event was scheduled at the Théâtre du Gymnase Marie-Bell for New Year’s Eve 2001, with the slogan “Toza sur le terrain” (“we are here on the ground”) to prove they were truly in Europe. In the meantime, the group re-entered the studio to adjust parts of K.O. Debout, which had already been completed in Kinshasa  and to add new shout-outs. With Marie Paul and his musicians in Europe, they realized that they hadn’t the same impact in Europe like they had in Kinshasa, seeing that apart from their albums and Abeto produced cassettes, there were no videos on the market of big events they had in Kinshasa (1994-1999). It was a huge blow for Marie Paul, who saw the events at l’Esplanade  Palais du Peuple of 1997, before Wenge’s split and that of 1999 as the biggest highlights of his career.

Wenge El Paris’s show at Marie-Bell ended up by getting sold out. However, because of the negative publicity surrounding LSC, there was little real hype around it and the press remained relatively quiet about it

yeah it will just shift to next project,like back in the days those instead of doing the initial version of balle de match as a maxi single transition to chemin de fer,they then did quel est ton probleme maxi single and soyons serieux,so it will be again like balle de match songs who were recorded years apart because many songs were already done for vol 3 and then the list of those getting to add a song might evolve with the reorganization of the group caused by the death of the drummers and kibens leaving which frees 3 spots for songs that they were about to have

There were also artist like Pathy Bass, Champion Esthétique, Simolo Katondi, Guy Nsangue, Fofo Le Collegien, Ramazani, Pathy Moleso and Olivier Tshimanga that participated. I believe that Fally Ipupa wanted to equal or surpass Droit Chemin by inviting them on A2BM, as the artists of F-Victeam were not on their level yet.

Yeah, this album had Maika Munan as arranger. I think that it was a mistake from Fally, to appoint himself as artistic director/arranger of Power and not  Maika's participation on that album. Not saying that Power was a bad album, but it was not on the level of A2BM and Droit Chemin. Also different songs were sounding the way, which wasn't the case on his two first albums

I always have so much respect for people who are able to get into Europe by themselves especially without the leaders help. But one thing with me personally if you're always leaving me behind when going to Europe trips there's no way I'm rejoining the group in Europe lol

lol the thing in common tshe tshe and cambodge have is that they have a big mouth,surely hitting drums hard comes with it lol since kakol also is mad talkative
now what i respect from them both is that they have kept their touch despite working regular work in europe and you just know its not office work which is mainly exhausting mentally but rather some physical stuff which could have taken a toll on their performance