Karmapa is a great Congo Rumba artist. I have a couple of his albums/DVDs. For somw reason he has never found success as financially as Koffi or the Wenge team. One thing I have come to find out is that outside of Congo, not many Africans are into pure Rumba like Karmapa plays; it has to have a mix of strong sebene and of course prancing stage girls and boys. He needs that Europe crowd and big concerts. I have not seen a Karmapa concert though.

Karmapa is a great Congo Rumba artist. I have a couple of his albums/DVDs. For somw reason he has never found success as financially as Koffi or the Wenge team. One thing I have come to find out is that outside of Congo, not many Africans are into pure Rumba like Karmapa plays; it has to have a mix of strong sebene and of course prancing stage girls and boys. He needs that Europe crowd and big concerts. I have not seen a Karmapa concert though.

the explanation is probably the fact like wazekwa he arrived quite old already in the world of music( both are over 50 now but have less than 20 years as professional artist) and it took them time to be accepted and considered,and financial succes depends of recognition
but both have managed to have a certain wealth,and also  they dont depend only on music,both have other ways of making money here in europe

Karmapa is a great Congo Rumba artist. I have a couple of his albums/DVDs. For somw reason he has never found success as financially as Koffi or the Wenge team. One thing I have come to find out is that outside of Congo, not many Africans are into pure Rumba like Karmapa plays; it has to have a mix of strong sebene and of course prancing stage girls and boys. He needs that Europe crowd and big concerts. I have not seen a Karmapa concert though.

He has a couple clips on Youtube, I've been trying to track down his first and and recently released album with no success.

We may be blaming this man for no reason, it may be just that he has not sold part of him somewhere deep so that he can cross the borders.

We may be blaming this man for no reason, it may be just that he has not sold part of him somewhere deep so that he can cross the borders.

One  thing I have noticed about Congolese music is that without proper financial backing and a good producer/promoter plus the good looks and charisma, a musician will not make it big no matter what they try. We have certain musicians whose artistic standards are very high and consistently produce and release good music but to no avail, they seem to be on the same level, I think this is the case with Karmapa, Lacoste, Kabosé and many other musicians. Other musicians including the likes of Werra made it from the start due to the fact that they were part of a major band and thrived and still thrive on polemic and rivalry to make it.

karmapa is like his "petit" wazekwa,both have other  jobs here,so even if you listen to their interviews you can clearly noticed they are not specially interested in personal success,being the most popular and all that,they keep saying they play good music and are happy if fans enjoy it and thats all

Totally agree with you dj sly karmapa is the new prince of rhumba who unfortunately unrecognized by his people . heard his first two albums  and though didn't know much about him loved his arrangement of music ... great!

karmapa is like his "petit" wazekwa,both have other  jobs here,so even if you listen to their interviews you can clearly noticed they are not specially interested in personal success,being the most popular and all that,they keep saying they play good music and are happy if fans enjoy it and thats all

It's good to know they have other things which earns them money. Had Wazekwa stuck to the arrangement of he started on Et après and Faux Mutu Moko Boye he would have really been successful, he was beginning to break ground then he joined the bandwagon of those making one generique and the rest ballads.

Totally agree with you dj sly karmapa is the new prince of rhumba who unfortunately unrecognized by his people . heard his first two albums  and though didn't know much about him loved his arrangement of music ... great!

Yes, his is proper rhumba, he's got an edge over Ferre Gola, if only Karmapa had a perfect voice, ahhh, he would have gone very far but am glad he utilises his voice effectively, it's a rough voice but when he sings he's calm and makes no errors.

This album is now on iTunes, for those of us who don't have easy access to those European or African music stores.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/gombo/id822394256?i=822394269

This album is now on iTunes, for those of us who don't have easy access to those European or African music stores.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/gombo/id822394256?i=822394269

Thank you for the link I will now buy the album!!!