In retrospect at what point in time did you realize that Werrason was going to win the war.

Already since Force d'Intervention Rapide, especially when the "Concert a l'Esplanade de Palais du Peuple"-VHS (1999) came out. That concert amazed me.

 from the moment  bcbg overstayed  in europe,lets be honest maison mere was gonna have an edge somehow anyway since they had a strong anger while bcbg started like its in heaven the only question was whether maison mere would have that drive longterm,which happened

Tricky one because I think JB is underrated in this forum, he stayed strong until the embargo came around 2002 and still stood strong and relevant till today but Werrason that team was a dream team and had too much pace/speed for BCBG to handle even though JB could have matched them with the original Pipiyu of Bercy and 2nd/3rd of Wenge BCBG around Kipe Ya Yo/Quel Est Ton Probleme I think that's what let JB down he couldn't match the raw fresh speed of WMMM by being stubborn to promote the reserves team as the 1st team in my opinion.

When Solola Bien came out

Already since Force d'Intervention Rapide, especially when the "Concert a l'Esplanade de Palais du Peuple"-VHS (1999) came out. That concert amazed me.

Exactly and I will add that Werrason has confirmed all this with his first album Kibuisa Mpimpa

Interesting topic indeed

Force d'intervention Rapide, everyone in London heck even in Belgium was playing that wayyy more than titanic you either had the cd or vhs

Now let me ask another question to dig deeper. We know werrason and jb fell off because of different reasons including the solo albums issue and other internal problem but could it have been that they wanted to go different directions artistically as well and that might have been another reason for the split? And if so where do you think they differed on artistically and were you able to see the difference after they separeted?



Bonus question: Listening to Intervention Rapide for the n-th time on my way to work I realized Werrason was already calling himself Le Grand Formateur. That turned out to be more than true years down the line as we seen the results and seen a lot of “tete d’affiche” comme out of that school (Ferre Gola, Fabregas, Heritier and the likes) . What do you think earned him that nickname so early on in his solo career? Was it just confidence in the prospect of this new team he had just picked out or was it from years of finding and refining talent during the 4x4 days?

  your post has just made me realise something with us fans,i have very rarely,almost never seen anybody give any credit whatsoever to tata masela makaba bula about bcbg and maison mere,it seems so much that the group split to pave way to two solo careers
indeed they did not agree anymore artistically aswell because the solo ambitions were growing too much so they started  "thinking" music their own way and not anymore that common thing with makaba as the mastermind
bcbg tried to maintain the wenge rhythm as it was  in the beginning but as they quickly lost makaba and mbokaliya the rhythm started to change they just maintained a "easy" sebene tempo ,while maison mere when werra failed to get his friend ficarre to continue former wenge rhythm  remembered japonais had in him apart from the wenge style the wild style of station japana so they created some sort of mix,which was taken to another level by flamme and also the fact maison mere was built on a aggressive context to prove a point(you'll notice the same "rage" in academia's sanction for example ) while bcbg started(too) sure of their strength continuing calmly on same tempo
yes i think werra always had in himself that taste for to pick talented musicians but was  always in makaba's shadow in terms of developing them(and getting the credit for that) so knowing he'd remain quickly the only leader he knew he'd be able to fully have his touch on them musicians and fully get that credit
 and today he is just continuing  to do what he always had in himself,i remember at some wenge concerts he used to come along with jb before the concert they'd sit and watch street groups playing before them and werra was taking notes at times
jb on the other hand can also smell talent but he clearly wont be on your back all year long to bring absolute best out of you for your own good and for the good of the group,he'll teach you some stuff then let you adapt swiftly with no pressure

When Solola Bien came out

Same

After watching this for the first time while being a big bcbg fan .