It’s 24 years ago that Extra Musica released their 6th album “Trop C’est Trop”. The album replaced Shalai that got released 2 years earlier. Trop C’est Trop was a huge succes and the generique was  played on all African radio-stations. In Kinshasa, they first only used to play the generiques of their album on the radio, but for the first time a track outside the generique also got promoted. The  rumba-song Probleme sur Probleme was getting alot airplay on the radio and the clip also being shown on tv and  gaining some succes over there.



The album was a response to Extra Musica International’s Merci. After Trop C’est Trop, a hiatus of 3 years started.



When coming to myself. I wasn’t liking the generique at that time, because it felt weird to me to not hear Kila Mbongo’s voice,  I was wondering if he left and I was not used to hear Arafat animating alone. I was also not really into Extra Musica and started listing seriously to their albums 10/15 years and it’s from that moment that I realized that the generique was actually very good, the work Arafat did on this album being great and Trop C’est Trop being an album with very good songs, such as Gambala, 12 Balles, Zangul Zangul, Moselekete, N’Julie, etc. It became at some point my favorite Extra Musica album due to the Roga Roga’a way of playing sebene differently to other albums, the vocals of Papy Jah, the chemistry of the drums, rhythm, mi-solo, lead and bass, the songs and animation Arafat did.

you can tell roga felt pressure with the switch of durell to lead guitar and he had to up his game(thinking about it clan extra must be the kings of recycling rhythm guitarists into soloists,started with durell,then sonor,then in the offshots arnaud laguna moved to lead as durell left,doudou then moved with freddy masaki then 6 vitesses also made the switch to solo,and with roga's extra stade eboue then moved to lead when sonor and bondomania left )

This was a great album. But I always felt that Shalai's sebene songs were stronger and the artistic direction of the sound felt crisper. But I understand they were going in a different direction with this one and it worked

Easily the best album of Clan Extra Musica. My favourite being Guivano. I only realised recently that the song guivano was a reply to Z1 International song Amour Neglige from the album erre de verite or was it the other way round?

This was a great album. But I always felt that Shalai's sebene songs were stronger and the artistic direction of the sound felt crisper. But I understand they were going in a different direction with this one and it worked

The sebenes in Shalai were good. Laissez Passer, Complainte, Tu Me Manques, and Sissi l'Impératrice were my favorites. However, some of them sounded a bit monotonous at times. I don’t see any sebene from Shalai that matches 12 Balles or N’Julie in terms of aggressiveness. Each sebene of Trop c' est Trop has its own style/identity and there no sebene-song that is sounding the same as another.  But of course, everyone has their own taste.



I notice that outside the generique, Roga played the distortion just once in Trop c'est Trop (in Guivano). Shalai, there some tracks were the mi-solo wasn't good audible (I believe that Laissez Passer being one of these songs), while in Trop c'est Trop, you can rhthyhm, mi-solo and lead really well in all songs

you can tell roga felt pressure with the switch of durell to lead guitar and he had to up his game(thinking about it clan extra must be the kings of recycling rhythm guitarists into soloists,started with durell,then sonor,then in the offshots arnaud laguna moved to lead as durell left,doudou then moved with freddy masaki then 6 vitesses also made the switch to solo,and with roga's extra stade eboue then moved to lead when sonor and bondomania left )

I believe that if Extra Musica International had released a follow-up album after Merci and Z1 International hadn't split up, we could have seen another side of Roga Roga as a lead guitarist. In Obligatoire, he slowed down. He played well, but it didn't feel like he gave his very best, like he did in Trop c'est Trop

you can tell roga felt pressure with the switch of durell to lead guitar and he had to up his game(thinking about it clan extra must be the kings of recycling rhythm guitarists into soloists,started with durell,then sonor,then in the offshots arnaud laguna moved to lead as durell left,doudou then moved with freddy masaki then 6 vitesses also made the switch to solo,and with roga's extra stade eboue then moved to lead when sonor and bondomania left )

I believe that if Extra Musica International had released a follow-up album after Merci and Z1 International hadn't split up, we could have seen another side of Roga Roga as a lead guitarist. In Obligatoire, he slowed down. He played well, but it didn't feel like he gave his very best, like he did in Trop c'est Trop

It's crazy how quickly Z1 International lost momentum. By June of 2002, Regis effectively left the group. I've always wondered why Quentin never returned to Brazzaville with the group after Merci, he could have replaced those that stayed for papers. You've got to have real drive to be a orchestra leader, I feel like there's musicians that are mostly comfortable making music and not handling the bureaucracy of the business – JB Mpiana, Quentin, and arguably Ferre.

https://fr.allafrica.com/stories/200208150582.html

https://fr.allafrica.com/stories/200208150583.html

This was a great album. But I always felt that Shalai's sebene songs were stronger and the artistic direction of the sound felt crisper. But I understand they were going in a different direction with this one and it worked

The sebenes in Shalai were good. Laissez Passer, Complainte, Tu Me Manques, and Sissi l'Impératrice were my favorites. However, some of them sounded a bit monotonous at times. I don’t see any sebene from Shalai that matches 12 Balles or N’Julie in terms of aggressiveness. Each sebene of Trop c' est Trop has its own style/identity and there no sebene-song that is sounding the same as another.  But of course, everyone has their own taste.



I notice that outside the generique, Roga played the distortion just once in Trop c'est Trop (in Guivano). Shalai, there some tracks were the mi-solo wasn't good audible (I believe that Laissez Passer being one of these songs), while in Trop c'est Trop, you can rhthyhm, mi-solo and lead really well in all songs

Yeah I definitely agree with trop cest trop having a lot more variety.

By the way, was there a reason why this album took 2 years instead of 1 compared to the prior albums? I always wondered how an album inbetween would’ve been like. But the extra year wss probably the reason why Trop cest Trop was so good.

It's a pity they did not include this track on the album as originally planned, and only put it on the DVD. Luckily the DVD audio is WAV, that is unusual, but theoretically CD Quality.

It's a pity they did not include this track on the album as originally planned, and only put it on the DVD. Luckily the DVD audio is WAV, that is unusual, but theoretically CD Quality.

It would have been better if they released Trop c'est Trop as a double album. I wonder why late Jean Pierre Saah just wanting them to release it in one cd. Karen Amour and Bikkisa Nga Kayembe are to good to miss out. I believe that Kayembe Chez Ntemba was mad to not see his song back on the song, because in Obligatoire, Espe Bass once again dedicated a song to him

This was a great album. But I always felt that Shalai's sebene songs were stronger and the artistic direction of the sound felt crisper. But I understand they were going in a different direction with this one and it worked

The sebenes in Shalai were good. Laissez Passer, Complainte, Tu Me Manques, and Sissi l'Impératrice were my favorites. However, some of them sounded a bit monotonous at times. I don’t see any sebene from Shalai that matches 12 Balles or N’Julie in terms of aggressiveness. Each sebene of Trop c' est Trop has its own style/identity and there no sebene-song that is sounding the same as another.  But of course, everyone has their own taste.



I notice that outside the generique, Roga played the distortion just once in Trop c'est Trop (in Guivano). Shalai, there some tracks were the mi-solo wasn't good audible (I believe that Laissez Passer being one of these songs), while in Trop c'est Trop, you can rhthyhm, mi-solo and lead really well in all songs

Yeah I definitely agree with trop cest trop having a lot more variety.

By the way, was there a reason why this album took 2 years instead of 1 compared to the prior albums? I always wondered how an album inbetween would’ve been like. But the extra year wss probably the reason why Trop cest Trop was so good.

I have no idea. Maybe touring a record-amount of African countries, because back at time, Etat Major and Shalai were a huge succes in Africa. I believe that it was in 2000, that they went for the first time to Kenya, Uganda and Zimbabwe, but I could be wrong about it. Anyway, it was in feb. 2001 that they came back to France and after a short tour started recording Trop c'est Trop to come back in summer 2001 for the Fespam-festival to not return to Europe anymore for years.

I don't know which interview it was of Roga Roga in 2000. But I remember him once saying that they even went to Madagaskar, which is quite rare for ndombolo-artists, since it's mostly Soukous-artists doing that. I believe that it was only Bozi Boziana who went there back in the 1980s and 1990s touring also in Comoren and the Maurice-island.

Looking back now it was a big mistake not to release it on double CD indeed. This album would have definately deserved that.

It's only yesterday that I made a mistake. I was wondering, how I could write about Trop c'est Trop being a quarter of a century (25 years old) while missing out on Viagra and Internet that came out in september. Only realizing that it was not the 25th anniversary, but the 24th. I think that I will have the time to write something a bit of V12 on monday or sunday and in the month of december about A La Une, Force de Frappe and maybe about the events of Academia and Wenge El Paris at LSC

What’s even crazy about the double CD thing was that Shalai was actually a double CD album. But they wasted 1 of the CDs which only had one song on it which was the main generique. If only they also did that same thing for Trop Cest Trop

@ Mfumu Vata oh that would make more sense. They didn’t have much time due to touring.