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« on: August 20, 2019, 20:23 »
I think that Koffi & QL held its own from the '90s until 2003, (this opinion may be bias as I've mainly grown up listening to Koffi's songs. ''Pops was a huge fan'') The musicality, the diversity and the catchiness of the songs is of higher quality than any members of Wenge. What differentiates Koffi from the rest is his musical ear, which you can hear through many of his songs. Of course, we know the classics such as Loi, Andrada, Génération Bercy, Effrakata, Ultimatum, Micko, etc. However, the underrated songs are just as pleasant to listen & even makes you want to swing your loketo. Such as Force de frappe, Danao, Skol, Bilan, Moprete lendila etc. Although, Koffi has dominated the seben genre around those years, the rhumba was definitely up to par.
Unfortunately, all great things must come to an end, and it was time to give chances to the next generation (At the time, Fally Ipupa). As soon as Fally left QL, I think that the Wenge members upped their game a lot more. Maybe it's due to Koffi & QL setting the bar so high in terms of musicality (my opinion), but Werrason's consistency on different générique's has been great. From Alerte Général, Techno Malewa (radio edit was not my favorite), Sous-sol, and even the later and more recent générique's Werrason has still managed to be consistently great such as Sattelite, Kata Fumbwa, Diemba, Zenga Loketu, Charge, etc. The only critique that I have towards Werrason is the fact that his générique's from 2004-2014 was extremely long. The newer seben's music is extremely condensed. Most songs from Fabregas, Robinio, Fally and even Koffi's newer songs have been condensed to no longer than 6 minutes. However, Werrason still did génériques for nearly 13-15 minutes.
In terms of Rhumba Ferre Gola has been consistently perfect (without surpassing, Koffi for my opinion).
I enjoy Fally's rhumba, however, I feel that he sometimes loses focus on his roots (hence the Tokoss album: His worst album for my opinion).
A very exportable and marketable artist with an abundance of talent, but Ferre keeps the authenticity of rhumba & pays hommage to Giants of the genre, with his distinctive sound.