I thought about this the other day and after listening to Heritier’s new Chemin album, I have to say this. I really think guys like Fally or Ferre could save this genre if they really wanted to. If you know me, you know exactly where I’m going with this but hear me out.

Fally and Ferre are the ones that are at the top right now and everybody follows suit. Whatever they do, the rest of the artists and bands follow them. So right now, they both create 1 or 2 generiques, and the rest are rhumbas mostly for their albums. That’s the standard format for the last 20 years almost and albums like Droit Chemin solidified it. By the mid 2010s, it kind of changed a little bit. When Fally released power 001 in 2013. It had like 3 or 4 generiques. Then you saw artists release numerous generiques for their albums and it was a great time during that period. Even guys like werra and Koffi released a good number of generiques and even seben songs in their albums in those years.

By the time Ecole releases in 2018, the format goes back to 1-2 generiques, the rest rhumba. The rest of the genre follows suit and it has been downhill from there. Now here we are today.

Now, Fally or Ferre have the power to change things. They could just aim for their next album to have fully generiques and seben, very little rhumba. Not just plain seben songs. Really strong seben songs, with strong animations and partitions that are on the level of the golden days, and to top it off with a new modern and innovative approach. If they did that, I bet everyone would follow suit too. Guys like werra and Koffi would definitely go back to that format too. Then the genre is saved, and fally or Ferre would truly be the GOATS.

The donors.. yes the donors. I think if fally/ferre really wanted to do a seben album, they could convince the donors. The fact that fally/ferre and the other artist don’t see the value in seben is what led to the donors to believe that as well. Now I know they wouldn’t take this risk because they would rather play it safe, that’s why I’m so disappointed in this generation. They have the power, but they just don’t use it the right way. Time will pass them by and they will lose this opportunity. Just like with the last generation in the late 2000s(werra,Koffi,JB). They don’t have the same power now that they did 20 years ago. The same thing will happen to Fally/Ferre.

Let me know what you guys think. I know I might be ridiculous here but I wanted to throw this out there and hear your thoughts on this.

I thought about this the other day and after listening to Heritier’s new Chemin album, I have to say this. I really think guys like Fally or Ferre could save this genre if they really wanted to. If you know me, you know exactly where I’m going with this but hear me out.

Fally and Ferre are the ones that are at the top right now and everybody follows suit. Whatever they do, the rest of the artists and bands follow them. So right now, they both create 1 or 2 generiques, and the rest are rhumbas mostly for their albums. That’s the standard format for the last 20 years almost and albums like Droit Chemin solidified it. By the mid 2010s, it kind of changed a little bit. When Fally released power 001 in 2013. It had like 3 or 4 generiques. Then you saw artists release numerous generiques for their albums and it was a great time during that period. Even guys like werra and Koffi released a good number of generiques and even seben songs in their albums in those years.

By the time Ecole releases in 2018, the format goes back to 1-2 generiques, the rest rhumba. The rest of the genre follows suit and it has been downhill from there. Now here we are today.

Now, Fally or Ferre have the power to change things. They could just aim for their next album to have fully generiques and seben, very little rhumba. Not just plain seben songs. Really strong seben songs, with strong animations and partitions that are on the level of the golden days, and to top it off with a new modern and innovative approach. If they did that, I bet everyone would follow suit too. Guys like werra and Koffi would definitely go back to that format too. Then the genre is saved, and fally or Ferre would truly be the GOATS.

The donors.. yes the donors. I think if fally/ferre really wanted to do a seben album, they could convince the donors. The fact that fally/ferre and the other artist don’t see the value in seben is what led to the donors to believe that as well. Now I know they wouldn’t take this risk because they would rather play it safe, that’s why I’m so disappointed in this generation. They have the power, but they just don’t use it the right way. Time will pass them by and they will lose this opportunity. Just like with the last generation in the late 2000s(werra,Koffi,JB). They don’t have the same power now that they did 20 years ago. The same thing will happen to Fally/Ferre.

Let me know what you guys think. I know I might be ridiculous here but I wanted to throw this out there and hear your thoughts on this.

My two cents....any product that is meant for the market will always obey what the market wants. Supply and demand dynamic. These artists produce what the market wants or they would not make profit/money and be forced to change. So seems the love for generiques among fans on this platform and elsewhere has not  translated to a powerful demand dynamic to force supply by artists. Seems rumba is paying them okay and that is the demand they respond to. Lovers of sebene and generiques can all pull together and become donors and force the artists to play albums with 10+ seben and generiques. Without that we will keep having this debate on the keyboard as artists keep churning out 30-song albums with 29 of them being rumbas......

I thought about this the other day and after listening to Heritier’s new Chemin album, I have to say this. I really think guys like Fally or Ferre could save this genre if they really wanted to. If you know me, you know exactly where I’m going with this but hear me out.

Fally and Ferre are the ones that are at the top right now and everybody follows suit. Whatever they do, the rest of the artists and bands follow them. So right now, they both create 1 or 2 generiques, and the rest are rhumbas mostly for their albums. That’s the standard format for the last 20 years almost and albums like Droit Chemin solidified it. By the mid 2010s, it kind of changed a little bit. When Fally released power 001 in 2013. It had like 3 or 4 generiques. Then you saw artists release numerous generiques for their albums and it was a great time during that period. Even guys like werra and Koffi released a good number of generiques and even seben songs in their albums in those years.

By the time Ecole releases in 2018, the format goes back to 1-2 generiques, the rest rhumba. The rest of the genre follows suit and it has been downhill from there. Now here we are today.

Now, Fally or Ferre have the power to change things. They could just aim for their next album to have fully generiques and seben, very little rhumba. Not just plain seben songs. Really strong seben songs, with strong animations and partitions that are on the level of the golden days, and to top it off with a new modern and innovative approach. If they did that, I bet everyone would follow suit too. Guys like werra and Koffi would definitely go back to that format too. Then the genre is saved, and fally or Ferre would truly be the GOATS.

The donors.. yes the donors. I think if fally/ferre really wanted to do a seben album, they could convince the donors. The fact that fally/ferre and the other artist don’t see the value in seben is what led to the donors to believe that as well. Now I know they wouldn’t take this risk because they would rather play it safe, that’s why I’m so disappointed in this generation. They have the power, but they just don’t use it the right way. Time will pass them by and they will lose this opportunity. Just like with the last generation in the late 2000s(werra,Koffi,JB). They don’t have the same power now that they did 20 years ago. The same thing will happen to Fally/Ferre.

Let me know what you guys think. I know I might be ridiculous here but I wanted to throw this out there and hear your thoughts on this.

My two cents....any product that is meant for the market will always obey what the market wants. Supply and demand dynamic. These artists produce what the market wants or they would not make profit/money and be forced to change. So seems the love for generiques among fans on this platform and elsewhere has not  translated to a powerful demand dynamic to force supply by artists. Seems rumba is paying them okay and that is the demand they respond to. Lovers of sebene and generiques can all pull together and become donors and force the artists to play albums with 10+ seben and generiques. Without that we will keep having this debate on the keyboard as artists keep churning out 30-song albums with 29 of them being rumbas......

To develop my point further.... I have just taken a YouTube survey of the 'top 3' lates albums. This is what you get;

Artist-Heritier
Album-MAMD

Song-Amour Veritable(rumba)-9.5 million views
Song-Racouer(rumba)-5.8 million views
Song-MAMD(generique)-3.9 million views)


Artist-Fally
Album-Formule 7

Song-Mayday(rumba)-34 million views
Song-M.H(rumba)-8.7 million views
Song- Formule 7(generique)-7.2 million views

Artist-Ferre
Album-Dynastie

Song-Marathon(rumba)-5.3 million views
Song-Ekoyebana Dedicace(generique)-2.9 million views

From this very small sample it is clear that even if we discount the donor route of revenue, another main stream that is Youtube viewership, rumba songs are appreciated by way more people that seben songs and generiques. If you were Fally or Ferre or Heritier and you are planning on the next album, common sense dictates that you will base your format on the most recent product and its success in the market. Seems rumba bring in more money not jut from donors but also from Youtube viewership. It is a no-brainer that the next album you produce will be more oriented to what is gonna put food on your table more; rumbas. Maybe the noise about generiques is only inside this platform. You go out to the larger market and rumba reigns supreme. And last time we had this generique/sebene versus rumba debate, I gave the example of Kenya where I live and occasionally deejay......It is almost impossible to find clubs with generiques on their menu even for half a night. However almost all leading clubs have a rumba night on rotation with reggae, old skul, amapiano and naija music. On the road what you hear in car stereos(mostly the high end ones hahahah) is rhumba for those who lean to Congolese music. This evidence at least in my part of the world clearly deconstructs the generique/seben hype that suffocates this platform any time a new album comes out!!!!

i think indeed rumba is more appreciated but also its because generiques have got considerably weaker,throw an alerte generale,a libre parcours 2 a ya mado and so on today with how its become more common for people to access youtube regularly than 5 years ago no rumba stands the comparison,if anything the last years actually defied the logic which existed in the past that the generique were the "mirror" of the album and that dance songs were getting views quicker i remember heritier bragging because he was one of the first to make quick millions on a brand new rumbas
that massive drop  of generique level has made it that gospel generiques are hammering the secular ones in most parties these days because they seem to take it "more seriously"
since that fella did the "fanda na yo" classic you cant drop a gospel album without a banger generique,while in secular music you can get away with doing a generique for the sake of it

SYMPLICITY And Archos, you guys are completely spot on. I however think Archos is more correct. I think the reason why rhumba is more popular than sebene now is because they promote it waay more than they would a sebene/generique song. The rhumba wave feels more forced and artificial, and now the crowd/market has accepted it as the main standard in the genre. This all started because guys like Koffi started to force more rhumba in the albums in the mid 2000s.

SYMPLICITY, I do agree that it may be hard to go back to the generique/seben route, but what if they really tried? What if they took it seriously and released fire? Like Archos said, we haven’t seen a fire generique from Fally since Libre Parcour 2 which was almost 10 years ago. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to try in this landscape. You never know, it could change this current market.

I wouldn't say the rumba wave feels forced. Maybe it does today, but this wave has been growing for 20 years. It started when Le Karmapa started dropping music. Back then, it was the standard for albums to open with generiques or sebene songs, but Karmapa boldly broke the standard by opening his albums with rumbas, letting the listener know what kind of music he'd be doing. The success of Je M'Appelle Toi, plus Tabu Ley's advice to stop copying the clan Wenge, really got to Koffi, resulting in Monde Arabe having more rumba songs than his previous albums. Then, Fally and Ferre went solo with debuts that were predominately rumba, marking the moment where everyone else had started to follow. Even JB and Werra, who still made an effort to include a few sebene songs, jumped on the wave.

Exactly! All it takes is something new to change the genre once again. It took Karmapa’s album to change the landscape back then. Now it has to happen again at some point. Why can’t fally or Ferre take that initiative? I just think they don’t want to take that risk and are complacent about where they are. They’re not thinking for the long term

SYMPLICITY And Archos, you guys are completely spot on. I however think Archos is more correct. I think the reason why rhumba is more popular than sebene now is because they promote it waay more than they would a sebene/generique song. The rhumba wave feels more forced and artificial, and now the crowd/market has accepted it as the main standard in the genre. This all started because guys like Koffi started to force more rhumba in the albums in the mid 2000s.

SYMPLICITY, I do agree that it may be hard to go back to the generique/seben route, but what if they really tried? What if they took it seriously and released fire? Like Archos said, we haven’t seen a fire generique from Fally since Libre Parcour 2 which was almost 10 years ago. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to try in this landscape. You never know, it could change this current market.

If they really tried, may just upset the current form. In some circumstances a very high quality product forces the market to bend to its will. What makes it difficult is that all fans of the generique/sebene agree they have diluted the quality. If they try hard again, you never know.....

I know Fally & Ferre are the top 2 artists at the top right now but can someone explain why does it have to be them to change everything? Why can’t other artists do their own thing/set trends instead of following? This scene won’t get anywhere if people are constantly following the too artists.

I think artists should have minds of their own & set their own trends/do their own thing. Was Karmapa the artist at the top when he started doing Rhumbas from the first track?

I’ve seen people say Fally is blocking other artists but people want him to change so other artists can follow & change, it doesn’t make sense to me i’m confused. The generiques need to be stronger i agree

Current crop of musicians are asking what Ferre and Fally are doing to try and copy and even Ferre and Fally themselves are asking what the other is doing and that is why it is more advisable for fans to tell them to lead the way. Secondly I thank Le Karmapa for starting the trend for I am a #RumBa fan first the rest are secondary or can be deleted in my menu. Third, on my side I see nothing wrong with musicians releasing an album of more than thirty songs or even fifty and all are rumbas and most importantly he will be marketing them in their live concerts.
On this platform Ferre was criticized by people here on how his first song after detention is boring and flat only for Ferre to make the song popular and more appealing to people for he has been popularizing the song in most of his concerts. It is just need a good planning and we are good to go even if the continue with the current trend.
Note: currently it is only Ferre and Fally who can be okay with 20 plus songs and people will want to listen and dissolve them all. Not even Koffi can do that at the moment for legend album I haven't even listened to some songs to their last minute.