My guy Serge Kabangu at Studio NJ is producing all the music coming from Paris now "danger".

Kiekie, meme à Paris Extra rhythme moko....

Maybe its time to let someone else play lead. Sounds like contentieux which sounds like sorcellerie kindoli which sounds like oyo ekoya eya... im really starting to think our music is on its last leg. Nothing innovative comes out of Kin or Brazza anymore. All this stuff that comes out sound the same.

Maybe its time to let someone else play lead. Sounds like contentieux which sounds like sorcellerie kindoli which sounds like oyo ekoya eya... im really starting to think our music is on its last leg. Nothing innovative comes out of Kin or Brazza anymore. All this stuff that comes out sound the same.

Agree, but more so for Brazza music. Kin artists have way more creatively compared to them.

The sound Brazza makes is so damn tired. Whenever I try to give modern Brazza music a chance, it's the same rhythm and drum arrangement they've insisted on since 2006-7. Even it's an album full of sebene songs, I still get bored.

For me, he only guy keeping them on life support is Doudou Copa with the great rhumbas he makes.

Brazza is more focused on coupe decale sound right now. But most bands that are still doing regular music are heavily influences by the roga roga sound you are right. Im speaking in broader terms though. I think our music is at a standstill. Kin always been light years ahead than brazza when it comes to music thats no secret. What im saying is that I find that as a whole we have not moved forward as we should. How come we havent had any new acts from Kin in the past 5-10 years ?? How come we havent had smash hits that came out of Kin in the past 10 years? Only 2 I can think of are techno malewa and ya mado but objectively were they smash hits outside of the congolese community? Thats what im saying.

I love afrobeats from brazza, just saying !!!!

I love afrobeats from brazza, just saying !!!!

Go ahead and share those links my brother dont be stingy now lol never heard afrobeat from the congo i dont think

Broadly speaking, African people have moved on from Congoloese music since the mid 2000's. First it was the Ivorian Coupé decale craze until 2009-2010 or so. After that Ghana/Nigerian afro-beat took over.... We had a popularity run from the Zaiko era, to the soukous era, then the ndombolo era, then things died out in 2003-4.

Popular African music has always run in phases. In the 60's the popular music was very Cuban inspired.

Locally, the music that is really thriving now is the DJ decale stuff and religious music, which is incredibly huge there. Most Congolese people right now are playing Moise Mbiye and co in their cars.

Generally, we aren't hearing from lots of new bands because the big 4 (Koffi, JB Mpiana, Werrason, &  Papa Wemba) monopolized the genre during the deep polemic era. All the media became catered to them as a result.

The 5th generation and offshots that are popular now got their reputation because they were once in the bands of the big 4. That is why they receive the attention they get by the DRC internet media and DRC social media .

Exactly. And sonically speaking also I feel that we’re not moving much. The rumbas sound innovative from time to time but the sebenes.......
For a people that dominated african sound for 50 some years I feel that we should have more movements going for ourselves

@Matebu

Excellent analysis! That monopoly of mainstream Congolese music strangled innovation. It's either you're recruited by Koffi, JB, or Werrason in order to obtain high media and commercial exposure. At the same time, they quickly exploit new faces as an facade of being "modern" before the long established members or rules freeze those new recruits out the band.

To compound the problem, donors have gotten lazy with their sponsorship as they are often unwilling to invest in new talent. In their thought process, it's a safer option to go with long established talents becausr even if the album is met with those groups have enough classic in their musical resume to tour on those alone.

As you mentioned, times are changing! The internet has made the exchange of music and videos a more simple and cheaper process than before. Equipment used to record and edit music video can now be done with a couple cameras and a laptop, where as a studio was needed for the editing work. Musical acts like Odd Future, Justin Bieber, and The Weeknd have utilized Youtube to secure buzz before they got sponsored by a record label. The younger artist could refine their craft to make their visuals more engaging to increase the chances of their video going viral, thus bringing attention to them and their group.

The internet has also given up and coming artist more access to music and information. There are Youtube channels devoted to teaching skills like playing guitars, keyboards, drums, and even audio engineering techniques so that the technical capability is mastered at an earlier rate than their musical predecessors.

Most importantly, the internet can introduce them to different types of music from all over. Perhaps they can be inspired to play with different rhythms and melodies, while maintain their cultural roots. If they were to incorperate changes based on these observations as well as those on the forum, we'll soon see a breathe of fresh air in animations, sebenes, singing, videos, and even live concerts which will bring Congo back to the forefront of African music.

Maybe, I ain't got all the answers *Kanye West voice* kiekiekie!

Exactly how I feel. The youth should capitalize on the fact that we have the internet around for everybody. They dont have to wait for Werra to give em a shot at la zamba. Using the examples of the us where I reside, young rappers aint waiting on LA Reid to launch their careers. They record from their laptop, shoot their own stuff and post it on social media. The youth have to break away from the system that we are used to. The future is on them. The more I think about it the more I realize its not so much Werra, Koffi and the others fault but more so the youth not doing a lot to break out.

koFFI and more than him Wenge have killed innovation.

People like Koffi and Werra are artificially taking space in our music through their money and connection. This space should be occupied by new acts.

However, another issue is producers and funding. In our music, you need instruments and they are not easily available, while in Hip-Hop you just need a computer. If a new generation of producers rise, you'll see the emergence of a lot of groups with new ideas.

For Africa, the issue is the américanization of the african youth. The phenomenon is drawing them to americanized music : this is why Nigeria/Ghana for instance are making so much noise. Their music is very close to what african american are doing.

For me, our music will be back artistically and commercially on top, in 5 or 15 years. The Wenge generations need to be wiped out. I dni't think they will have longevity.

Congo is full of many artists / groups with strong innovation and artistic creation, but the lack of producers and therefore means they remain in anonymity.

The fraternal support between the Congolese musicians must also return to the heart of our music if we want to recover our place of No. 1. Egotism has nothing to do within our music. As we say "together we are stronger"

Totally agree with @Paysan Congolais

An example of the monopoly big artists have - even if Koffi goes to the barber shop, there's some internet journalist ready to go to interview him there. The fact that the biggest DRC journalists always go to his house to interview him on Sunday primetime while he's sitting in a throne chair is pretty telling

And in order for unrelated video topics to get views, the internet journalist make sure to add Koff's name to the title. It's annoying

Congo is full of many artists / groups with strong innovation and artistic creation, but the lack of producers and therefore means they remain in anonymity.

The fraternal support between the Congolese musicians must also return to the heart of our music if we want to recover our place of No. 1. Egotism has nothing to do within our music. As we say "together we are stronger"

Totally agree with @Paysan Congolais

The problem is we are too hard headed as a people to ever really understand that. It's been the nails in coffin for the genre

It reminds me of when Wemba used to give lectures to the kulunas in his Europe enotourage about becoming better citizens. You could literally see his words going over their heads as they faked nodded in agreement to look smart. "Sounds good, but will I really change my ways?... nah, I'm having too much fun".

 guys the problem is the mentality,except some of us here and there and somewhat thanks to be leaving close to different cultures or having been raised  on too strong values to change on influence,i have noticed that a lot and i mean a lot of us congolese have accepted so many stupid things that it turned normal and people hate "change",everytime i go to kin there is always like 10 things i wonder why its like that  and the response i get is " ahhh tosala nini tomesana bongo"
in this case of music,people are convinced that without beef and hate all year long our music can not exist, and like mvulusi said recently the bad sides of "esprit wenge/viva" have taken toooo much importance in our music and even worse in our community
the cases of how fans of artist x react to  combattants threatening artist y say it all,we still at the level or doing 12 at any occasion,a lot of our artists even on private trips have or had combattants on their back easily because fans of other artists "tracked" him and leaked info about where he will be which hotel where he might go and so on

Exactly how I feel. The youth should capitalize on the fact that we have the internet around for everybody. They dont have to wait for Werra to give em a shot at la zamba. Using the examples of the us where I reside, young rappers aint waiting on LA Reid to launch their careers. They record from their laptop, shoot their own stuff and post it on social media. The youth have to break away from the system that we are used to. The future is on them. The more I think about it the more I realize its not so much Werra, Koffi and the others fault but more so the youth not doing a lot to break out.

BrazzaBoy and all the guys, I can feel that you don't understand the lack of new artist popped out of nowhere in Congo but beside what Archos, Matebu, Paysan Congolais and Congolitude said which is totally right I think that we need to understand that the amount of money for getting yourself promoted in the internet (10000 euros for example) is a huge sum that very little people in Congo can afford especially younger ones I mean in congo it is hard to have 200 dolars to survive so for a young artist who deosn't want to get deep in the game and doesn't have money to pursue their musical dream so Nigerians and Ghanian will always have the monopoly until things in Congo globally change.