Recorded in 1987 I never that was Do Akongo so I'm guessing he was still in Quartier Latin?

 interesting to hear he could have been a singer in viva
he gave us quite some talent from his band,ibrator,nono fudji,omba,atshuda,eboa lotin, equaliseur,julio nzau,robinio....

Recorded in 1987 I never that was Do Akongo so I'm guessing he was still in Quartier Latin?

No, it was before he joined Quartier Latin. He & Desouza were contacted by Veve to record an album after working with Monza 1er.

Stars Magnats was at the closing I'm guessing Verckys contacted them both while recording the album Fleur Du Lac.

interesting to hear he could have been a singer in viva
he gave us quite some talent from his band,ibrator,nono fudji,omba,atshuda,eboa lotin, equaliseur,julio nzau,robinio....

Tangu mosusu ezalaki destin. Maybe if he joined Viva then maybe we wouldn't have discovered his talents as songwriter or he would have been dumped later. Back in the 70's and 80s there were many singers who were singing better than Emeneya, Reddy, etc. but they were never getting a chance and were often humilated by Wemba's staff. Someone like Reddy Amisi was very talented but it took him alot of time to convince the public. In 1987 he was close to join Zaiko, but the patience made him the guy we know today.

Hang on Reddy was tempted to join Zaīko? Adding to the fact Defao wanted to join Viva as well but he decided to go to Grand Zaïko.

Hang on Reddy was tempted to join Zaīko? Adding to the fact Defao wanted to join Viva as well but he decided to go to Grand Zaïko.

Yeah, in 1986 Viva La Musica returned to Kinshasa after tour of 8 months in Europe and Japan. But after that short succes problems started because they hadn't instruments, then Papa Wemba went to Europe for some months and Viva La Musica started to get financial problems. They even celebrated Viva's 10th anniversary without Wemba. Viva was so broke that Luciana Demingongo already joined Choc Stars and Reddy Amisi was about to join Zaiko. But with help of rich fans they managed to keep them in Viva. Then Papa Wemba arrived in Kinshasa and he brought almost the whole band to Europe, some members of his staff and settled Viva in Paris.

All this time I thought viva was stable with royaltie money but Papa Wemba brang the whole band apart from Lidjo Kwempa, Cele Le Roi and Gauthier Mukoka.

All this time I thought viva was stable with royaltie money but Papa Wemba brang the whole band apart from Lidjo Kwempa, Cele Le Roi and Gauthier Mukoka.

Viva La Musica was living with help of donors, dangerous gangsters of Kinshasa, hoes, drugdealers, etc. since their start in 1977 until the mid-2000. Back in 70s & 80s musicians weren't getting alot of money like now. The only artists at that era who were alot of money were Franco, Tabu Ley and Verckys Kiamuagana. After the split with Victoria Eleison in 1982, Papa Wemba was struggling very hard because of being in war against Verckys with also the thing that Tabu Ley & Simaro Lutumba kind of cursed him after disrespecting them when they tried to reconcile him with Emeneya and co. Papa Wemba started to get real money when he started in world-music career , when he started to record albums with Sonodisc (Foridoles, Pole Position, Nouvelle Ecriture) and when he signed lucrative contracts with Bralima & Bracongo for concerts in Kinshasa and the rest of Zaire (1988, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995). The same for King Kester Emeneya, despite his contract with Bralima since 1983 and the huge succes he had in the years 1982-1988 & 1990, he was still poor with that slave-contract he had with Veve. He started to real money from 1997 when he came back in Kinshasa.

I never knew Papa Wemba insulted Simaro and Tabu Ley it's a shame there was a slave contract but what choice did they have.

I never knew Papa Wemba insulted Simaro and Tabu Ley it's a shame there was a slave contract but what choice did they have.

not insulted, but not showing up to the reunion they had with the musicians of Victoria Eleison, Simaro & Tabu Ley to rejoin Viva La Musica. Back in the days people were different and had massive respect for the elders. Similair thing happened to JB Mpiana after a meeting with Tabu Ley & the minister of culture who tried to reconcile him, Makaba and Blaise Bula with Werrason, Adolphe Dominguez and Didier Masela just before the Intercontinental-meeting. Tabu Ley attacked JB Mpiana very hard on tv the same day. He was very angry and cursed him behind the scenes and Wenge split he blessed Werrason and made a big lobby to make people convince to support Werrason. JB Mpiana was aware about that and attacking him, and other elders (Veve, Pepe Kalle, King Kester Emeneya & Koffi Olomide) in Titanic, saying in the song "basalaki likopa na ba vieux na bango, mais bakoki te".


The contract of Veve with his artists was that he would give you his instruments for free with you giving your rights away for 100 years. Which means that you won't get money for the songs you will record under his label. If you look on the Mboka Mboka-album you will see that they credited Editions Veve. Sometimes he would give you some gifts like a car, or a tv, but that was peanuts compared to the of money he was getting from his artists. Those artists were only beneficing from concerts in bars/pubs, but that wasn't alot of money. Performing in Lubumbashi, Kisangani, Bukavu, Mbuji Mayi & Matadi was more lucrative since that it were big events. That's also why those bandleaders became like gigolo's following daughters of rich businessmen, policitians of the MPR-regime or Brazzaville and/or those were living in Europe and who came on vacation. Sometimes it resulted in fights between the musicians.

Back in those luckily Zaiko had prozal, Choc Stars had Eprodis record company a car is nothing they will just sell it to get more money.

Back in those luckily Zaiko had prozal, Choc Stars had Eprodis record company a car is nothing they will just sell it to get more money.

the bad thing of Prozal was that the money was only shared between the admins (Nyoka Longo, Zamuangana, Meridjo Belobi, Bapius Muaka and Mbuta Matima) and the rest getting peanuts or nothing. It was also one of the things which made Zaiko split.