Jean louis was born on the 11th of november in 1980 in kinshasa,and he will start music in 1992 as a drummer in one of the group of his area barumbu called galaxie music and will like many young guys also play a lot of football shining as one of the best young midfielders of the area but his parents do not want him to consider music let alone football as his future job so they punish him a lot and as he starts to grow will develop desire to start singing,which he does at church first then in other small street groups and it's in those groups that he will discover another talent in himself as he starts doing animation as they have no atalaku in the group and with the help of some more experienced guys of the older street groups will really learn his trade
in 1996 jean louis who then adopts the nickname of caiman(cayman or alligator) will join the group jolino in which he will be teamed up with no other than didier kalonji aka kalo star back then under the direction of chef d'orchestre rio kazadi "de janeiro" as the leader jolino kiezowa spends more time in europe and comes sometimes  and as times goes on him and many other members of the band will be frustrated as the leader takes their work  goes to off to re do it with other guys instead of giving them a chance
so in 1997 he leaves the group and he is taken to the just born wenge maison mere  but is not tested as at that time celeo has full support of adolphe dominguez and there is already bill clinton and gentamicine around(before the official concerts) and later on will be introduced to quartier latin in 1998 as koffi started to prepare a young team to anticipate departures as he is informed about many musicians' growing desire to leave so he will learn quartier latin's animation  mentored by mboshi lipasa and he will shortly team up with him and will be taken quickly along with many guys of the new generation on a cameroon tour at expense of mboshi who starts feeling he is forced out
and in 1999,when mboshi and somono are both gone jean louis then renamed cnn by koffi will have the immense chance of doing animation of album attentat on his own as other atalakus ocean,molayi and co stay in kinshasa and he will make a great impression but at the same time will against his will be involved in some polemic as  in the clip of generique attentat he is given the complete outfit from head to toe jb mpiana wore at his first stade des martyrs concert stopped early by too heavy rain to belittle jb
nevertheless,he will months later make his first europe trip to make history as his leader koffi becomes the first african artist to perform at the huge omnisports hall of bercy which has just been existing for 7 years and his stellar performance will earn him even more consideration and respect
he will use his animations of that concert in group album force de frappe but then return to kin will turn out sore for him as koffi recruits two young atalakus kerozene and brigade and there are strong stories of cnn dating dancer sandra lina at the same time as his boss and in the secret of the industry various people will claim the final nail for him being that he is called to koffi house to witness koffi sleeping with sandra which he sees at the biggest humiliation
 he is left in kinshasa when the group goes to zenith with kerozene and brigade and will manage himself thanks to donors to go to europe on his own and once there he will have two short spells in two groups, the first being cultura pays vie where he is set to replace papy louange who ran away but he refuses to go back to kin with the group then with wenge bcbg where he is told to stay there as the group will go back to kin and return then go back with the ppu for their well awaited return but it does not happen as bcbg start having visa issues and as lebou kabuya leaves quartier latin academia along with pathy bass they create together quartier latin integral,signed to french label premiere classe and will record in europe volte face then lebou and co  will go to kinshasa and recruit the likes of mirage supersonic mon ami guelor and co and they will record between kinshasa and dakar album voodoo but soon after the group breaks up and cnn is back to paris and will make a surprise return to quartier latin in album monde arabe but he will not return with the group to kinshasa preferring to stay in europe to sort out longterm papers having done in their voodoo time some programming of future songs in studio bobongo and he will start working on those songs with leny bidens in paris
and in 2006 he goes back to kinshasa to recruit musicians for his group and will recruit the likes of cousteau mopiwi,bikorino,padache...to form the group loi integrale and goes back to paris to record  those 5 songs he programmed and release maxi single  k-libre 12  where for the first time people discover him as a singer but he is strongly let down by producer with inexistant promotion
several years after he will be invited on black bazar project by sam tshintu and modogo and he is currently working on his first album  with his own funds

@archos

Great biography, archos! Why would Koffi recruit Bebe Kerozene and Brigade upon Quarter Latin's return to Kinshasa so soon after Force De Frappe? I understand atalaku Ocean needed to be replaced, but Brigade is a bit too similar vocally to CNN.

That was foul what Koffi did having CNN walk in on him sleeping with Sandra Lina! However, he knew the rules; you don't date dancers in the group. If the boss wants her, more than likely the boss will have his way regardless of her relationship status.

CNN is definately one of the most consistently impressive animators in Congolese music! I wish Quarter Latin Integral lasted a bit longer, why did they break up so quickly?

One of my favourite tenorist atalaku

I didn't know CNN was still in Quartier Latin when Brigade and Kerozene joined the group. I thought he left as soon after seeing Koffi sleep with Sandra. I thought only Kerozene join the group after CNN departure.

I didn't know CNN was still in Quartier Latin when Brigade and Kerozene joined the group. I thought he left as soon after seeing Koffi sleep with Sandra. I thought only Kerozene join the group after CNN departure.

He was still there when both joined. I remember Brigade saying in an interview back in 2013, that CNN didn't like him when he joined the band, but Koffi was supporting him. CNN was calling him a photocopie of him in a interview with Voice of Congo 5 years ago if i'm rigth or another site.

Papy Jah said in interview that Fally was complaining against Koffi about wanting to copying Maison Mere. Saying to him "you left CNN behind kinshasa to take Kerozene & Brigade on tour to copy Bill Clinton and Celeo and now you want to take Papy Jah to let copy him Ferre Gola".

^ The Fally and co that were secretly scared of how good of a singer CNN was the few times he was asked to sing at repetition

^ The Fally and co that were secretly scared of how good of a singer CNN was the few times he was asked to sing at repetition

I think that he was refering to Champion and Depitcho who were those songi-songi boys in Quartier Latin who did also not last in the band. Because he said that the guys who were scared of him seeing singing, were the guys who didn't last long.

I didn't know CNN was still in Quartier Latin when Brigade and Kerozene joined the group. I thought he left as soon after seeing Koffi sleep with Sandra. I thought only Kerozene join the group after CNN departure.

He was still there when both joined. I remember Brigade saying in an interview back in 2013, that CNN didn't like him when he joined the band, but Koffi was supporting him. CNN was calling him a photocopie of him in a interview with Voice of Congo 5 years ago if i'm rigth or another site.

Papy Jah said in interview that Fally was complaining against Koffi about wanting to copying Maison Mere. Saying to him "you left CNN behind kinshasa to take Kerozene & Brigade on tour to copy Bill Clinton and Celeo and now you want to take Papy Jah to let copy him Ferre Gola".

exactly they have almost had a fight when koffi abandoned cnn for some african concertd and brigade was winding him up
haha yes indeed but later on the same fally was used to try and lure his friends kakol and flamme to latino

I didn't know CNN was still in Quartier Latin when Brigade and Kerozene joined the group. I thought he left as soon after seeing Koffi sleep with Sandra. I thought only Kerozene join the group after CNN departure.

He was still there when both joined. I remember Brigade saying in an interview back in 2013, that CNN didn't like him when he joined the band, but Koffi was supporting him. CNN was calling him a photocopie of him in a interview with Voice of Congo 5 years ago if i'm rigth or another site.

Papy Jah said in interview that Fally was complaining against Koffi about wanting to copying Maison Mere. Saying to him "you left CNN behind kinshasa to take Kerozene & Brigade on tour to copy Bill Clinton and Celeo and now you want to take Papy Jah to let copy him Ferre Gola".

exactly they have almost had a fight when koffi abandoned cnn for some african concertd and brigade was winding him up
haha yes indeed but later on the same fally was used to try and lure his friends kakol and flamme to latino

Fally almost had a fight with Koffi ? For real ?

 no i meant brigade and cnn

no i meant brigade and cnn

Ah ok.

Thanks for the bio of my one of my favorite all-time animators. So people didn't know that CNN was going to be in Monde Arabe? And how did he join QL again in Europe again? Koffi probably wasn't mad when he stayed in Europe because for some reason he didn't want him anymore.

Thanks for the bio of my one of my favorite all-time animators. So people didn't know that CNN was going to be in Monde Arabe? And how did he join QL again in Europe again? Koffi probably wasn't mad when he stayed in Europe because for some reason he didn't want him anymore.

He joined Quartier Latin in Kinshasa. He was presented at Grand Hotel with Babia who made also then a comeback. He was Lucky to be on Monde Arabe, since that Koffi left him again behind. But with help of his ex'girlfriend he went to Europe on his own and toured with them and participate on Monde Arabe stayed there a record a single called "Salam Alekum.



Here he is animating with Brigade in Angola (2003). But people didn't like their duo at that time, prefering a falsetto atalaku.