Will have to check this out. I'd also like to see an interview with her brother Ridens Makosso about his relatively short stint in QL

Will have to check this out. I'd also like to see an interview with her brother Ridens Makosso about his relatively short stint in QL

Well, it wasn’t that short. I think he was there frome 96 to 2001 (like champion) but he only participated on 2 albums (attentat/bercy & force de frappe). He also one of the musicians who prepared effrakata.
I didn’t knew he was older than her.

Translate man.

@Grandpretre

Didn't Ridens Makosso participate in Loi as a mi-soloist?

Maybe Ridens got sidelined because he was not as impressive as the other guitarists of Quartier Latin. Ramazani already had a strong resume with his work for Papa Wemba.

@Grandpretre

Didn't Ridens Makosso participate in Loi as a mi-soloist?

Maybe Ridens got sidelined because he was not as impressive as the other guitarists of Quartier Latin. Ramazani already had a strong resume with his work for Papa Wemba.

Loi was recorded by 3 guitarists (Popolipo, Do Akongo & Felly Tyson) along withMaika Munan, Rigo Star Yves N'djock when they where touring in Europe with towards the end of 1997, Lebou Kabuya adding some partitions. Ridens Makosso was a new member and wasn't very influent and used then to play only rhythm. Ridens became an important member when Academia was founded with him getting some space.

Ridens is a very talented solist, maybe even better than Felly Tyson. You have just to watch those old concerts of 2000 & 2001. I think that Ridens got sidelined because of having a problem with Koffi. Because many QL-members who performed at Bercy, started to have problems with Koffi after Force de Frappe. Koffi could bring him to Zenith, peforming with 4 guitarists like when he performed at Olympia. Because alot of sebenes of Force de Frappe were played by him (Au Secours, Pragmatisme, etc.). He left somewhere in 2002.

@mvulusi96

What became of Ridens after Quartier Latin? Did he join another big group?

I don't know. I heard that he lives in Abidjan now. I guess that he tried to go througt West-Africa to Europe like many Congolese people and then got scammed.

I have enjoyed in the past reading translated interviews done by fellow members. Today I have challenged my self.

Please forgive mistakes in translation because Lingala is not my first language.

In summary, she says she was a dancer in a certain group in Bandal. Suzuki lived in the neighborhood and came to know about her since they had a common landlord. Suzuki had come from a tour upon the release of the album Maggie.

Suzuki in the company of his friend approached Nono and informed her that Koffi was looking for dancers. After a while, Koffi sent representatives who were also accompanied by the guy who was with Suzuki the first time. They told her that Koffi had sent them to pick her and take her to Koffi's house.

Upon arrival, she was asked to dance in front of Koffi's mother, servants and other people present at the house albeit without music being played! She danced and also animated. She told Koffi that the animations were from the other group and they had a lot of animations.

She was hired and asked to appear in Matonge for rehearsals. Before she left, she was asked how old she was and said she was eighteen (dix-huit ans). However, she had one request to Koffi: since he had hired her, was it possible to also hire her boyfriend! Koffi's mother was shocked and Nono did not know that such things were a taboo at Koffi's place.

Koffi then asked what her boyfriend did for a living and she answered that the animations that she had just performed, belong to the said boyfriend and Koffi said that he wold see about that. Nono kept pestering him about that issue. (We will soon learn that the said boyfriend was Dolce Somono).

She says she found four dancers Zina Bilawu, Rosette Kamono, Mirreille and Mboyo. She says that Fifi Miss Yolo was not there when she arrived because Fifi would be present at one time, absent on other occasions, sometimes appear during rehearsals, on other days she would not come, sometimes she would be married and things like that.

Nono is then asked about her relationship with Somono and says that they worked together and besides being her boyfriend in the other group. Koffi later tested Somono and hired him. But it took a lot of convincing and begging from Nono and others for Somono to agree to be tested.

Then one day after rehearsals, Koffi summoned Nono and Somono. Koffi told them that he did not like relationships at work because such unions had a negative effect to the group and that they had to part immediately. She clarifies that they were not married and that Somono got the job not because of her intervention but for his success at the test.

She confirms that Koffi used to lock them in a room when they went on tour. Koffi used to tell them that he was taking them abroad for his own work i.e. to dance only and thereafter lock them in the house as he went away to the studio or wherever. There was never a written contract whereby the dancers signed agreeing to be locked in a room like animals.

She says that Jordan Kusa in his interview with Ado just recently, described the situation quite well when he said that the dancers were Koffi's animals by the way he treated them while on tour. Mind you, Fifi Miss Yolo took great offense at Jordan by calling them animals and demanding an apology from him but Nono says that it is Koffi who owes them an apology for locking them up. 

One day while on tour, Koffi locked them up in a house that had only a kitchen, toilet and sleeping room just like he used to. That day his wife had also gone and left behind a spare key. They (they were 4 of them) used the spare key to leave the house, hired a taxi (which Fifi paid) and went to Koffi's younger sister and began calling their friends to come and pick them up. They had no intention of going back to the house. However, come evening, they had to go back to the house to find Koffi already arrived. Passe Kosse was there and he told them that things were bad. It was during the recording of Ultimatum. They went straight to their room.

Koffi asked for the spare key. Two hours later, he summoned them. He had a system of calling them. For example if he knocked the door twice, they would know that it was Bilha (their leader) being called and every one else had her signal so on and so forth. And they had to pay attention and the tv volume had to be low. He never used to summon them by name.

He called them all at once then ordered them back and started calling them one by one to explain why they went out and specifically wanted to know whose idea it was and they all said that it was Fifi's.

She says that the reason why she did not appear in Ultimatum clips is because of some rumours / gossip about her to Koffi that she was planning to escape with Somono during the times she was being sent to buy bread and lotto tickets for Koffi. From there she was separated from the rest and ordered to sleep in one corner of the living room with a pair of jeans and eat after others had eaten.

She pleaded with Koffi to return her to the others and instead took her to the airport, gave her her an old passport without visa and she boarded a plane only to realize that Koffi had booked her to a plane to Brazzaville yet she did not have any money on her to connect to Kinshasa. Note that Koffi remained with her clothes and jewellery.

To be continued.
       

very good translation and well elaborated bro,i was about to do it but i will let you continue it was so nice
by the way i think this interview could break records for ado,the longest interview he has ever done in the series or maybe even in his career 3h almost,and that number of views within less than 48 hours

yeah 73k views in 2 days. That of Fifi has the most views of all interviews Ado made (163k views), but I think that that of Nono will pass it very soon.

very good translation and well elaborated bro,i was about to do it but i will let you continue it was so nice
by the way i think this interview could break records for ado,the longest interview he has ever done in the series or maybe even in his career 3h almost,and that number of views within less than 48 hours

Thank you Archos. I will try and finish it later today though it is quite long.

She contemplated joining another group and met Werrason but a move never materialized because Wenge BCBG 4X4 did not need dancers. Quartier Latin later returned from Paris and she is asked why she rejoined the group. She says that she wanted to prove a point to the people whom set her up against Koffi. (She later says that she came to know that it was Fifi and Miet or something like that). In fact what made her angry is the fact that Koffi used her dance moves in Ultimatum; moves that she says she came with from her previous group.

Fifi did not appear in the next album Loi and Nono thought that she could use the opportunity of Fifi's absence to prove a point to Miet. She then resumed her duties and continued being sent for bread and other little tasks and she would see her fellow dancers during rehearsals wearing the clothes that Koffi took away from her in Paris and Koffi never apologized to her. However, Miet later left and Nono was joined by Claudine AC Milan, Rosette Kamono, Youyou Chivundu and Zina Bilawu 

After Loi, she heard Koffi swear during a journey back home from Tanzania that he will deal with Sam and Modogo. She went and asked Sam who confirmed to her that they were leaving Koffi and then Academia was formed.

Later, the group recruited members to fill in the void left by those who had departed noting also that the dancers also left / retired except AC Milan and Nono. They resumed tours and they spent in good hotels and confirms that they were getting paid per tour or per concert or per month. Now it became easy for one to be removed from the group especially if a singer was spotted staring / ogling at dancers; a fact that Babia (RIP) warned Gipson about. Even Binda found himself in problems for this.

She left Quartier Latin and went looking for JB Mpiana with a view of joining Wenge BCBG. She went to his house where she found Allain Mpela who informed her that JB had gone to  a restaurant that he owned and they followed him there though she did not reveal her intentions then. She became a regular visitor to the restaurant and JB wondered why she wasn't going for Koffi's rehearsals and stuff and she told him that she had left Koffi's group. She got hired and went to Zenith with BCBG. She also says she appeared in Titanic

Something took place during her stay with BCBG. One time they had gone to St. Denis to perform and while they were at a hotel, someone called her from behind "the lady of atalakus" i.e. the lady who sleeps with atalakus and she turned and saw Aimelia Lias then asked him whether he was talking to her and why he called her by that name only for Aimelia to slap her.

It reached JB and he called both Nono and Aimelia. Allain Mpela was the Chief d' Ochestre. Aimelia was suspended and that is why he did not participate in TH. They travelled to Canada performed in Toronto then went to Montreal. After the Montreal concert, JB ordered all cars in their convoy to follow him behind as they went to their hotel. Mpella was was accompanied by his fans who had their own cars and wanted the dancers to ride with them. The car that Aimelia was in had an terrible accident. 

She goes back a little bit: she states that there were couples in Quartier Latin i.e. Suzuki with Rosette; Koffi with Fifi Miss Yolo; Willy Bula with someone else etc, etc. The owner of the rules was not following those rules. This explains why Fifi was not punished by Koffi for trying to escape with the others and gossiping about Nono to Koffi.

She is asked about the Bercy concert which she did not perform yet she had travelled with BCBG and she says that she had decided to abandon dancing and was actually in Europe when Bercy occurred. Upon pressure by Ado, she reveals that she was in Bercy waiting at the backstage for her name to be called out to stage but she was not called. She blames JB for this and declines to explain why.

But remember, it is suspected that during that time JB was having an affair with Nono and during that concert is said that Amida had told JB to choose either Nono or herself. And that if Nono had come on stage, Amida would have left Nono and their marriage would have ended.

She then talks of the work and value of a dancer and says that despite Koffi beating and locking them up, he valued dancers the most.

The rest of the interview is mabanga and stuff.
 

indeed the day of bercy amida stormed into the last group reunion before the concert they modified some choreographies last minute(they removed a section which some female dancers suggested to make the crowd go crazy which was meant to end with them pretending to cowgirl genta and  caludji who were part of the full choreography) and shouted bedel we have to talk and then took him outside and warned him that she had her clothes and so on packed and if she sees nono for a second on stage she returned to kinshasa and lives in the house he bought for her(he bought her one house even before any ofhis 20+ of nowadays in kin)
i dont think one group has ever existed without relationship between either the boss and some dancers or musicians and some dancers,some like kabose even have multiple relationship with 80 per cent of his dancers at same time and ends up getting slapped or given bad responses in front of everybody by those who have a bit of strong character