This one individual from Youtube made the correct comment about Papa Wemba's final album Maître d'école
Here is the comment from Papa Wemba's song Poule de la mort
Tu savais que tu partais deja..meme tes titres et chansons les disent
English translation
You knew you were leaving already...even your titles and songs say so
I agree with this commentary one hundred percent about Papa Wemba's final album Maître d'école. As we celebrate the 9th anniversary of the death of Papa Wemba, I wanted to post about Papa Wemba's final album in another way.
On Papa Wemba's final album, I noticed that Papa Wemba seemed to make his love songs more like he was reliving his old days or appearing to use someone's past into songs as well. Furthermore, Papa Wemba was basically indirectly saying goodbye to us but we did not notice back in 2014. Look at some of the titles that seem suggest this
Mobembo, Metamorphose, I need you, En Couleurs, Simple Reve, Nostalgie, Bande Passante, T'en vas pas and Ma Rosa.
On top of that, I found it strange that Papa Wemba would make an album called Maître d'école because we all know that Papa Wemba was foridoles which means Formateur des idoles. Why this title which was my question back then? But after listening to the album, now I get why he called it so. He was indirectly telling his family, his group and us his fans that he was on his way out. Good example is the album cover. The fact he is teaching people was one indication that he was teaching his students (well, his former and current musicians then) on how to continue his music and empire he created which is Viva La Musica. This leads to three songs that exemplify his indirect messages about his then upcoming departure from this world. There are more but I choose three to show this.
JOHNNY LOPEZ
POULE DE LA MORT
BLESSURE
Johnny Lopez is a love song that is noticeably more detailed about money that it should be. That was a give away that he was somewhat talking about protecting their assests and wealth. It was like Papa Wemba was singing about a scenario to prepare if something unexpected happened. He also gave tribute to Tabu Ley towards the end of the song.
Poule de la Mort is a song where he pretended to be Trésor Ngando in which he is indicating that he cannot win the match because he will be gone after the match which is why he has decided to stop the match from even beginning. Indirectly, it was Papa Wemba's way of saying that he was going to die on stage but under a boxing match as Trésor Ngando.
Blessure shows a broken hearted Papa Wemba as he gives his tribute to Kester Emeneya. It was clear that Kester Emeneya's death really broke Papa Wemba so deeply. I feel like Poule de la mort seemed inspired by the song Blessure.
Part of the reason I choose these three songs is there are two things that stand out to me.
ZAMBA.
On Poule de la Mort and Blessure, he would use the word Zamba which is a lingala term for the bush or the forest. To me, it appeared that Papa Wemba was using that word to indicate his upcoming departure which would happen in 2016. He was letting us know that he was not the same anymore.
PETIT ROSSY (PETIT ROSSI)
The strangest thing is this. On the songs Johnny Lopez and Poule de la mort, Papa Wemba would call himself Petit Rossi or Petit Rossy which is unusual in my view considering that Papa Wemba was a senior and he was basically the oldest active artist. He did not say Bakala dia Kuba, Mzee Fula Ngenge, Bokul, Kuru Yaka or those kind of nicknames. But he called himself Petit Rossi. Why would he call himself Petit Rossy? Likely because again he was reliving his old days and he was indicating that he was leaving us soon. I felt that sentiment when he said Petit Rossy.
What do you guys think? I would love feedback.
