It has been 20 years since Pepe Kalle left us. I was five years old when he passed away. I am a big fan of his songs and his incredible voice. It hits me hard to know that he was only 46 years old when he passed and just two days before what would have been his 47th birthday. So much has happened in the Congolese music scene and also Empire Bakuba is not the same anymore and there are conflicts among the Empire members.
Pepe Kalle was under a lot pressure during the 1997-1998 period because some of his staff members wanted him to get "younger people" into his band since most of the members were older. This was due to the success of Clan Wenge and they wanted Pepe Kalle to reach the fans of the Clan Wenge crowd. To make this happen, he got Lofombo and Kinanga Boeing 737 to get young guns to create a sub division called Delta Force which creates a major rift with Dilu Dilumona and Papy Tex. Already their relationship starts to crack a little but now it gets slightly worsened. But still they got their acts together and Papy goes to France to set another tour for Empire Bakuba. Pepe Kalle gets demands of projects coming up when he is preparing his final album Cocktail. Pepe Kalle has a lot of stress so he decides to meet with Nyboma in USA or Kinshasa (not sure) before he stays in Kinshasa for months and then Madilu comes from JPS to inform Pepe Kalle that JPS wants a duo album between him and Madilu. Pepe Kalle agrees but he wants to get Cocktail finished and promote it then he will come to do the duo song or duo album. Pepe Kalle starts with Nyboma first since they are closer and the songs are nearly done as they would have met in France in February, March or April 1999 had Pepe lived longer and then I guess by Summer 1999, he would have met with Madilu in Paris also to get their album started and finished. Nyboma was going to be the main producer behind both projects.
I say February to June 1999, because apparently according to Papy Tex, Pepe Kalle was going to get treatment for his obesity and Pepe Kalle was preparing for that treatment before he died. I guess it would have been between January 1999 to February 1999 or March 1999 depending how the treatment would have went had Pepe lived longer.
BTW for the projects here are the musicians whom I think would have appeared (only possibility)
Solo Sita
Rigo Star
Lokassa ya Mbongo
Ngouma Lokito
Desouza Santu
Biya Chante
Wuta Mayi
Ballou Canta
and others
Who knows how these albums would have been had Pepe Kalle lived longer. It sucks that we will never know since Pepe Kalle died on November 28, 1998.
