@mvulusi96

That's a great observation you made about Montana's career around the time Defao lost his band, he was very popular with fans and held a second-in-command position within the group. However, I feel like he made the right decision when he joined Quarter Latin.

At that time, competition was very intense in Congolese music with BCBG, Masion Mere, Extra Musica,  Victoria Eleison, Quarter Latin, among others. It seems like an artist was best posed for success within a group as opposed to a solo venture, unless you're based in Europe with a music label behind you that can advance you a band to record and perform music with.

Guy Guy Fall and Aimelia Lias immediately come to mind as popular individuals who left a large band to pursue solo career...didn't exactly pan out well for either of them! Reddy Amisi was lucky to start solo before ndombolo which put fan interest in catogorizing their support into artists as a collective as opposed to an individual by individual basis of the past.

I'm assuming Montana never released the album, because his recruitment by Koffi was very fast. I'm surprised JPS Production didn't sue, because by abandoning the project like that is sure to be some form of breach of contract.

I'm assuming Montana never released the album, because his recruitment by Koffi was very fast. I'm surprised JPS Production didn't sue, because by abandoning the project like that is sure to be some form of breach of contract.

Ndeko, the album was released with help from Sec Bidens, Ocean Ebale, Guy Guy Fall, & Dindo Yogo's Atalakou before he passed (forget his name). It's pretty good, not the greatest tbh.

It was a flop because the big 4 (Koffi, BCBG, WMM, Wemba Ecrita) had a monopoly of the hit parades and television stations. So all those guys Alphatshino (RIP), Montana, Suzuki, Aimelia, etc. had to conceed solo failure and rejoin groups before the offer window closed. Even Fally had no choice really to join a group after the a stint of Talent Latent. Fally's nickname was Anelka, because he was offered a big transfer contract (like Nicolas Anelka in La Liga when he was transferred to Real Madrid) to join QL after recruitment.

It was tough to survive as a small act/group then

Despite the monopoly, some artists & groups remained strong as well like Madilu (RIP), Academia, Les Quarttro de Langa Langa, Reddy (to a degree), Shora Mbemba, Dindo Yogo (RIP), Ocean Kibinda Koyi to name a few

LEONARD BALONGANA LUFUMA AKA MODOGO ABARAMBWA YALE LUFOS BALOS

his name was often announced as leopold but he cleared out it is leonard,leonard was born in 1969 and once planned to be like his father a diplomat but will quickly attracted to music in early years as his older brother and mother sing in a church
 around 10 he will start singing aswell but also will try to play mbonda and drums when older musicians take a break and will find it fun
in early 80's he will be playing football where he earns the nickname modogo referring to a former football(and will explain that abarambwa will be added not too long after because of a scene of him having to kill a mad dog to save a friend as the dog was already causing a lot of havoc in the quarter biting people for fun,so people will taunting him calling him abarambwa(he killed the dog))
and in the weekends he will perform with street groups and will be spotted to join shata junior,the junior section of the studio bobongo arrangers al nzimbi,shakara mutela and co where he will play drums,alain makaba bass, sometimes ficarre who will come to coach the younger soloist...
in the meantime he will sing and play drums in school's group itc flash were he will try to emulateis " his role models esperant djengaka,king kester,eboa lotin and co as he develops a wide range of models across the world thanks to cds his father brings from his trips
he will follow his "older brother" from the area sam tshintu into street groups like irania musica and whenthe group flash musica is born from them graduating from the itc school modogo will take the drummer spot and perform alongside suzuki,sometimes willy bula,sam,rocky blanchard,lebou kabuya,sunda bass...and he will catch attention of koffi olomide along with most of his band members at funerals of wenge musica's blaise kombo
in 1991 he is approached to join wenge musica as a backup to blaise bula as jb mpiana and werrason see their friend jules kibens decline their offer but he declines having big hope for flash musica but in 1993 suzuki who has joined quartier latin alongside lebou,blanchard and willy bula brings him to the group and reveals to koffi he actually is a singer and koffi asks him to sing and he is so impressed that he is straight away given songs to rehearse and participate to next concert
he will join the singers lineup then and will be allowed a song sylvekou on album magie and will become a regular member of the singers lineup and two years later will add second song ali deb's in quartier latin's ultimatum
his importance in the lineup is so big that koffi calls him le professeur and its well rumoured that on several songs he often is told to do the pre record and koffi sings following the same paths and he will often be bantered by quartier latin for his soundcheck "antics" randomly singing depending on his mood of the day cameroonian music,latin music in spanish,south african music and so on while other guys just try their normal vocals or do singing shoutouts
in 1998 when musicians are starting to rebel against koffi olomide for the fact they think their salary is not anymore matching their growing responsabilities,modogo is one of the most determined to leave and ends up co forming quartier latin academia in early 1999 with sam tshintu,lebou,pathy bass,mboshi,somono and bouro mpela
he will be a pivotal member of the group,quickly appearing as a second leader especially with some of the main stars bouro lebou and somono quickly leaving within the two first years
he will remain with sam mboshi and beniko when they record new album quatre coins kandala under new name l'akademia but relationship
in 2004 he will fall out with sam over issues of ngulu and whether to settle in kinshasa or remain in europe and it will go so hardcore that they threaten to beat each other and modogo who have been approached for years by people of quartier latin will decided to rejoin in 2005 but quickly the team which records danger de mort will split and he will decide to record a solo album knowing koffi will not allow him and in 2008 he releases album envie
Nevertheless he will participate on remix of sisi silivi along with ferre chair de poule and will have a memorable contribution which will be requested to almost all younger 2eme voix singers in interviews to assess their level and participate on fally ipupa's droit chemin
his album envie,funded by himself and bit of contribution of an unexperienced producer is of a good quality but will greatly suffer from lack of promotion
he will then participate on several album as a session artist and like many colleagues will also need to find another job and will again have a public beef with sam tshintu literally fuming at him for calling him petit in a heated argument but they will quickly make peace as they remember they are godfathers for each other's children so they can dwell on little things too long
both will participate on black bazar project of writer alain mabanckou and he will start announcing he is working on another album sala nga vrai(be nice to me) which he will again fund himself

I have been longing to read about Modogo Abarambwa for quite some time now. He is one of the guys I like. So this is a good read for me. Thanks Bro @ Archos

CLAUDE NZIASA KAMENGA AKA MONTANA KAMENGA SOMMET DES SOMMETS

claude was born on 17th of november in 1972,is married to "madova" and father of 6 children and will quickly have at home level already what will become his artistic nickname
in fact,his father goes on mission in europe sometimes and  claude will often like his father to bring to him claude montana clothes and from then his family already starts calling him claude montana
he will like most singers make his debut in music at church aged 11 and 4 years later will start to perform in street groups of his area like biomo musica,latoronto geneva,kv musica and will quickly appear like a natural leader with his singing,dancing and stage charisma
and he will be spotted already by defao matumona but he will only join the group in early 1991 and he will straight away become a very important member of the group big stars and will participate in the groups tours in africa and europe and will quickly become popular among fans,some even thinking he is defao's brother,with him having the same taste for fancy clothes and a similar haircut
in 1996 he will have opportunity to release his first song madova dedicated to his life long wife in album amour interdit and this album will be a big hit and defao loving montana so much that he is called the president of the group while defao is the leader
one year after when the mythic wenge musica split,he will be approached by some members of wenge musica maison mere but he politely decline as he does not want to betray defao and will decline quartier latin's approach aswell
he'll then continue with defao until 2000 when the group big stars is on the verge of collapsing after a tour and he remains in europe and starts working on an album as he is feels ready to know show one more songs on his own how good he is,but he is be approached again by quartier latin and will end up accepting  while he  will release his album millenium 2000 which was almost ready when he made his move
towards the end of 2000 he will then go back to DRC with quartier latin and will settle very well in the group with his professionalism and calm personnality
two years after he will be allowed to add his first song  in group album affaire d'etat,love story which will get a decent reception and will continue to be a very active member of the group's successful tours and koffi who jokes with montana calling him his "vieux"(despite being 16 years older) due to being one of the very rare artists having all his 6 children with the same woman
in 2006 he will get his second opportunity in the "real madrid" quartier latin lineup of fally,him,jipson,soleil wanga,ferre,mirage,junior...with the song general major but two events will hamper his year,first at personal level with the new house he just bought completely burning and at professional level with the massive exodus of stars having huge impact of promotion danger de mort
as he remains one of the rare members of that generation to remain loyal to koffi,montana will be rewarded by vice-president role while joss diena takes chef d'orchestre role
he will be given responsability to test new members in order first to reinforce first team of quartier latin but also a reserve team called les mineurs and will be promised several intervention including a duet with koffi in koffi's solo album but fallout will start as he is denied along with shella mputu and asso to participate outside chorus and the nail in the coffin will be in 2008 with new musicians starting to take his microphone by force or sing his parts on koffi's order and he will end up leaving in 2008
he will bring with him some members of les mineurs like scottie pippen to form his group staff influence and makes sure to have his first concert in his village in bandundu in order to get blessings from ancestors and he will record with some financial support of donors and artists like felix wazekwa and jb mpiana his second solo album conclusho renverso featuring fally ipupa and some other artists but he will struggle with promotion as his producer does not even give him his money from album release but will have some concerts in DRC and some eastern africa countries
after a quiet period montana will make the headlines against unfortunately with a sad event as he is visited at home by burglars who steal over 300000 dollars which his wife just assembled from a very positive period in her business and over 10 kilos of jewels
in 2014 2015 deeply affected by this event,montana put his studio sessions on hold to start another project which is to do some religious songs to thank God for giving him and his family to have kind of overcome such a strong situation and people will interpret it quickly as him becoming a gospel artist but he will explain in a press conference that he always believed in God and he only thanked Him through music because he is a musician if he was a writer then he'd write a book about that or a pastor he'd make testimony and went on to release two songs as extract of his album and he plans to release his album before the end of this year

Another nice one.Thanks once again Bro@ Archos

Thanks big homie. Could u do a bio of popolipo please? To me, he is the best guitarist of the whole continent

Modogo would have a hard time if he accepted to join Wenge. Because Mpela & Manda were figthing for the 4th mic, which they were sharing with Adolphe Dominguez. Other 3 mics were for JB, Werra & Blaise and never changed position

Modogo would have a hard time if he accepted to join Wenge. Because Mpela & Manda were figthing for the 4th mic, which they were sharing with Adolphe Dominguez. Other 3 mics were for JB, Werra & Blaise and never changed position

Why did JB Werra and Blaise always hog the mics when they werent THAT great of singers? I always thought JB was good but personally never thought he was THAT special. Always like Marie Paul the best out of all vocals

thank you for all the biographies that you post us bro @Archos

PITCHOU SAVANET MBEMBA AKA SAVANET DEPITCHO RONALDO

pitchou was born in 1969 in kinshasa and grew up in the area of bandal,unlike most of his future colleagues will grow in a very wealthy family as his dad is a senegalese rich businessman settled in congo
and will become by the age of 10 11 a great fan of music but will also play football a lot in his spare time
by the mid 80"s he will start singing at church and in various street groups as he develops strong admiration for the group viva la musica,their music their sense of fashion  and will be introduced by his friend wasenga kimpuni to the rising wenge musica 4X4 and will more or less be proposed to enter a reserve team of wenge singers along with jules kibens,respectively stepping in for adolphe and werra or blaise bula when they take a break but he will decline under pressure of his dad who starts to see his growing interest for music while he expects him to study seriously and one day have a "respectable" job like lawyer doctor accountant...
and in the mean time he also plays football in africana,the team owned by his dad and towards the end of the 80's his dad will find an incentive so that he focuses on class as he promises to send him to europe if he graduates from high school he will then get his diploma in 1989 in mathematics and physics alongside the likes of djino kota,blanchard "mosaka",machiro kifaya... one class ahead of willy bula and suzuki and will like promised be sent to europe
once in europe he will start university and will also do little jobs as a student in france and later will move in belgium and return to france and as time goes on,he meets friends from his street groups in bandal who have also arrived in europe and he will in 1991 join the newly born wenge aile paris of ricoco,aime buanga,zing zong and marie paul
in 1992 he will return to congo in a controversial trip as the el paris musicians who accepted to move back to congo for a tour organized by kongolo mobutu aka saddam who is starting to have a conflict with wenge 4X4 and wants to prove them a point,whereas none of them had papers to return to europe and will start to earn a reputation in congo with his sense of fashion,his stage antics and his voice likened to his role model debaba
when they return in europe he'll start having rivalry with another singer in the group with almost similar attributes,jdt mulopwe,who in private is his friend but as soon as they step into music field beef over their popularity with women
in 1994 when wenge aile paris split with ricoco bulabemba,aime buanga,cesar loboko,jf ifonge,jdl and co going to create their band wenge musica aile paris,savanet "de pitshou" will remain with manda chante,jdt,marie paul,delo bass...in wenge el paris and will become so influential that he becomes chef d'orchestre and he will be an integral member of the group's highlights but one bad memory will taint his beautiful story as he will be at some point suddenly paralysed on one side as there are some spiritual fights within the group as the success develops their egos and will be treated thanks to senegalese traditional doctors
in 1997 he will release two songs one dedicated to his friend willy musheni in the album monde a l'envers and another song called one way
in the meantime he has been informed by wasenga of imminent split of wenge musica 4X4 with suggestion to join their friend werrason but he is not too keen as he starts to have desire to release a solo album as one of the main guys of wenge el paris and receives insisting approach from people around koffi olomide
he will end up joining koffi's quartier latin in 1998 and will be renamed depitcho ronaldo and will shine in the group's europe tour to extent that from then many pitchou's are now called depitcho by friends and family,but he receives a mixed reception within the group,some being nice to him and some being jealous as he became the new favourite of the boss,to extent that he is once again attacked on spiritual field several times
he will release a song shopping in quartier latin's album droit de veto recorded during tour and as many of the main members of the group will leave to form quartier latin academia he will have even more influence as he becomes the group's chef d'orchestre replaceing the gone sam tshintu
in 1999 they record koffi's solo album attentat with a good contribution from him and in private people are starting to warn him that koffi could soon want rid of him as he is starting to sense a future favorite in fally ipupa and also for the fact savanet dates dancer miette shegue who he also dated
and in 2000 as the group is on the verge of performing in bercy one event started to influence a change in his relationship with koffi,as he fights at a party with alain mpela who is apparently also dating miette and at first koffi plans to suspend him but then he decides not to as he needs at least somebody with a good fanbase in europe already to give a boost in a list with 95 per cent of the guys having their first european tour and he performs at bercy with his usual success
later on in the tour, he starts seeing further change and will totally make his decision after concerts in switzerland,especially a concert where he arrives late along with jordan kusa and refuses to go on stage sensing possible humiliation he fully decides to leave the group after his mother telling him about repeated dreams she has of something very bad happening to him
and as usual in such cases in congolese music,musicians with at the forefront the emergeing new favourite fally ipupa will be sent to mock and belittle him
shortly after bercy,he will team up with his friends cesar loboko and jf ifonge to create agb stars but unfortunately those rivalries about women the "handsome guys of el paris" had will come back to haunt and the group will quickly collapses
depitcho will then go solo and form his band baraka holywood and so sure and confident of his success,he straight away wants to perform at grand hotel after coming back from switzerland where he is settled until today and unfortunately for him it does not go as planned
he will release 4 albums after his departure from quartier latin but unfortunately for him it flops,despite feats with koffi olomide,papa wemba and some other great artists
he lives in switzerland and has business there and plans a 5th album TOKANAKI TE(we did not plan it")

@archos

Great biography, archos! In retrospect, Depitcho should have step on the stage at Switzerland. Granted they would have been shamed for being late, but Jordan still remained in the band until Affaire d'Etat and even returned again for Monde Arabe.

It seems like the only people who really didn't like Savanet during Droit de Veto was Bouro Mpela, the other guys seemed cool with it

Didn’t you what happened to Jordan during that concert hahahhahahaha. Jordan was a new member, but Depitcho was already a confirmer star and Koffi often humilates people and force them out the band, just for little reasons like coming late to concerts or like not listing to his orders. He beated Lola Muana & Gipson many times and Somono in front of all people. But they all stayed in the band because they didn’t know were to go. Jordan Kusa wanted to leave Quartier Latin in 2002 after being left behind but he didn’t saw any band to go because he dissed all rivals of Koffi and everybody hated him. Adolphe offered him to join Tonya Tonya but he refused and after thinking months about his future he decided to stay. This all because he refused to give his ex’wife (I wont mention her name) to him which made Koffi furious and him looking for a reason to suspend him. Then Oncle Rece said that he had to react against Tutu Calugi who said he was the real Mopao (MMM) and saying to him that he had to say that he’s the real souverain 1er, being already to give Jordan clothes that JB wore. But Jordan refused because he was looking a way to clean his image, because everybody was hating him in Bandal and his life was in danger. So Koffi saw that as occasion to give him a 4 month suspension. During that time he startest dissing  Jordan in concerts with that mbwa-story and recording it even in Gipson’s song Bibilia.

Images can’t say anything. People can smile on the video, but behind the scenes its another story. Guys like Sam Tshintu, Champion, Suzuki, etc. weren’t liking him. Suzuki gave him a hard time in Abidjan. Tshintu’s hate towards Depitcho became stronger after their concert Germany, seeing Koffi & Depitcho talking in Koffi’s home in Paris about plans to force him out the band and let Depitcho become Chef d’Orcbestre

I think that if Depitcho joined Academia after Bercy, that it would have boosted his career even more with all that polemic in during that era. But he prefered to team with his friend JF Ifonge and Cesar Loboko. He couldn't even name Academia in his first interview after his depature lol.

Yeah, thats true about that concert at Grand Hotel Kinshasa. That was somewere in 2006 or 2007 if I remember well after releasing Haute Dimension. They made an article about him and Adolphe Dominguez having mpiaka concerts at GHK and saying that Didier Masela would join Quartier Latin. Depitcho thought that he had still the same fame of 2000 and didn't knew that alot of things changed in the Congolese music-scene, since 2004-05 people didn't want to pay anymore for VIP-concerts at Grand Hotel Kinshasa and Hotel Venus with those Europe-based artists who had bands in Kinshasa and bandleaders  giving invitations to donors, journalists and policitians. Giving then people and musiclovers a false impressions, who were always thinking that those events were sold-out while 80% of the public were invited.

I remember people saying in the past that all the money he was getting came from drugsdealing, being a gigolo and doing pornvideos and also gayporn. He was lucky that there wasn't facebook in that era and people weren't really into skyblog otherwise they would ruined his reputation. 

Thinking back about Miette Shegue, I remember her getting a suspension along with Nono and somebody else after performing at Stade des Martyrs. Does that suspension having to do something about the fight of Alain Mpela and Depitcho. ? Because Kony Star Maving told a story last year, saying that they Miette Shegue organised a party for her daugther Suria with Wenge BCBG celebrating it at her home. Then everybody went home, but Alain Mpela stayed to sleep with her since that he started to date her, but then Depitcho (the father of Suria) arrived and saw Alain Mpela. With Alain Mpela running away hahahahaha and Depitcho staying with her sleeping that evening with Miette.

I've always wondered how Depitcho would fare if he ended up joining Maison Mere as one of its first members. Prove me wrong, but I'd say that was a wasted opportunity.

Thinking back about Miette Shegue, I remember her getting a suspension along with Nono and somebody else after performing at Stade des Martyrs. Does that suspension having to do something about the fight of Alain Mpela and Depitcho. ? Because Kony Star Maving told a story last year, saying that they Miette Shegue organised a party for her daugther Suria with Wenge BCBG celebrating it at her home. Then everybody home, but Alain Mpela stayed to sleep with her since that he started to date her, but then Depitcho (the father of Suria) arrived and saw Alain Mpela. With Alain Mpela running away hahahahaha and Depitcho staying with her sleeping that evening with Miette.

yes and also mopao suspected nono to have "offered" miette to depitcho haha depitcho gave afande a very hard time ,neither him jdt and jf ifonge looked like physical bullies but man those guys play no game i remember once at atmo jf and depitcho gave a tough time to alain plus 4 5 guys,jb had to send there his own guys late baja,lourd and beta boma to overturn the situation
then he was taunting afande at times,ehhhh tshwakula il faut diminuer ba fufu hein