LingalaPop, Volume 9

This is Volume 9 of the Mauri Yambo Blog's series of #LingalaPop music. The point was made in Volumes 1 and 2 that certain Congolese music productions have all the features -- and effects on audience (or fan) sensibilities -- which are typically found in pop music as broadly understood. The hashtag given above highlights and groups what I consider to be stand-out examples of that kind of music. 

As previously indicated, Lingala is deliberately made a part of the hashtag in order to give due respect to that expansive lingua franca of the Greater Congo, which serves (in word and/or tone) as the base for the songs referenced here. Most of the songs under the hashtag are sung by Congolese nationals at home or in the diaspora -- but, interestingly, not all. In Volume 3, for example, two Kenyan Queens (Victoria Kimani and Akothee) featured in two separate songs in a full-throttle sort of way. 

Nor is Lingala the language that Congolese artistes, or those that they sing with, exclusively use in the included songs. French is a common ingredient across many songs; and so is Swahili. Choices are made from song to song, but perhaps not randomly. In Tucheze, Ferre Gola sang a considerable chunk of the lyrics in 'heavy-accent' but recognizable Swahili, while Victoria Kimani sang her part almost entirely in English. But Lingala did join them at the hip in terms of both tone and the synchronized flow of body texts. 

Nigerian artiste J. Martins appears with Ferre Gola in Ekelebe, in Volume 4, with enough gravitational force to influence the latter's celestial orbit. The same Ferre Gola, that is, who in that piece sings not, shall I say, in lyrical Lingala but -- in order to 'keep up' with J. Martins -- in bemusing English. Still, Lingala's tonal influence on both proceedings is not escaped, in whatever charming mix we may come upon the ingredients.

Volume 5, like the earlier four, showcases 10 video (or audio) clips steeped in #LingalaPop. Indeed, I think that the songs are among the leading ones. Here, too, not everything is pure Lingala. Barbara Kanam, for example, finely weaves her song, Reste, out of three language strands: French, Swahili and Lingala. She's as good in each just as she, herself, is. And Enemy Solo is sung in a 'volatile' mix of funky Lingala and lyrical 'pidgin' (that's English) by an irrepressible Awilo Longomba and super-charged P-Square! It is a match of equals.

In Volume 6, Linah (who is Tanzanian) and Christian Bella (Congolese) team up to deliver an exceptionally tuneful and colourful song: Hellow. Linah sings almost entirely in Swahili. The song as a whole is mostly in Swahili as well. However, Christian Bella renders his portion of the 'purely' Swahili lyrics with a decidedly Lingala accent. Arguably, this tilts the overall weight of the song's tonality toward Lingala, Christian Bella having already 'state captured' a significant portion of Lina's intonation in the first half of the song. 

In Olla as well, Christian Bella sings in Swahili with the same Lingala-accentuated verve. One should expect the same result, but Khaligraph Jones, the Kenyan Rapper King, blends, and so tempers, all that with his signature "stream of Consciousness" rapping style. And yet the Lingala imprimatur doesn't lose enough force to disappear. This is a win-win, in the end. We can declare a similar result in Nagharamia (sung by Tanzania's Alikiba and Christian Bella). Alikiba succeeds in creating a context in which Swahili (infused in a subtle and measured fashion with Taarab 'elements') cedes as much ground as it gains from Christian Bella's Lingala.

The songs in Volume 7 are sung mostly in Lingala, though four have French (or partly French) titles, and two English. They are all sung by Congolese artistes. Six of the individuals or groups featured here are appearing for the very first time in the #LingalaPop series. They are mostly men.

Three women sing four of the ten songs offered, all in video form. We have seen Claudia Bakisa and Mpongo Love before, but not Yondo Sister. She, Yondo Sister, is, I find, the finest of the bunch of artistes, male or female, gathered in Volume 7. She is among the very top in all the other volumes that we've seen as well. She dances with no restraint at all, as if possessed by the very words she sings and the tunes her ears and lithe body attend to. She goes, in the end, totally wild. Congo wild. Great funk! If you haven't seen Yondo Sister, I dare say, you haven't seen anyone.

Among the male singers, Cedric Embangu -- the lead singer in Cherie Enlevee Djino Kezipama (Song Number 4) -- is the most impassioned interpreter of the mood and all else that his song packs. He's really, really "intoit" -- body and 'soul'! And so it goes. READ MORE. 

But Sam Mangwana, with his fast-paced Fati Mata, makes an important point as well. It is that Rumba (Rhumba) has changed, and is no longer necessarily slow-motion music plus low-energy dance. He is not alone in this view, as artistes like Ferre Gola, Claudia Bakisa, Cedric Embangu, Fally Ipupa, Heritier Watanabe, Fabregas Le Metis and Didier Milla, among others, amply demonstrate. 

Five singers in total appear in Volume 8, as individuals or as artistic pairs, whom we have not seen in earlier volumes. These are: Didier Milla, Papa Wemba and Nathalie Makoma, and Madilu System and Nyboma. Papa Wemba and Nathalie Makoma (You shall place her by her 'family' name!) sing an attention-grabbing song, emphasizing their sense of freedom to break with 'set pieces' in order to catch, as catch can, nouveau sounds and styles. 

Didier Milla's team, likewise, delivers superbly innovative Rumba sounds and unfettered, stylized dance moves. Madilu System and Nyboma serve us a more 'mainstream' fare, but the dancing girls garnish it. They garnish it, with no apologies, with a "spirit of the dance" that's something of a bridge between Old R(h)umba and an Ascendant Soukous. 

Sure-footed Yondo Sister appears here, too, with two songs and sets of dancing shoes. And that silky voice. It's not a cameo appearance by any means. And all's well with Perdue de Vue. All's even better with Maweke's surround magic.

In this Volume 9 we have four singers we haven't encountered in previous volumes. These are, first and second, the late superstar Madilu System (aka Jean de Dieu Makiese, aka Jean Bialu Madilu) and Wuta Mayi. The two sing and share deserved accolades in a funky -- and 'just too tuneful' and truly dance-worthy -- piece titled L'heure c'est L'heure. 

Third, Alain Kounkou, who gives us as fine and thoroughly modern interpretation of Soukous as any in R.A.S Riens A Signaler. Fourth, Kidum, who pairs with lovable Alicios in Pete, in a touching tribute to love and the optimism and trust that it invariably engenders and rides on.

Eight of the titles in Volume 9 were sung and published after 2010; that is, in this second decade of the 21st century. But these cannot include L'heure c'est..., since Madilu System (born in 1950) died too soon, at 57, in 2007. We have already touched on two of the eight above; that is, R.A.S.... and Pete. The other six are: C'est Facile, Logik, Kin Fever, Jeudi Soir, Mwana Kento and Nashindwa.  

Let's touch only briefly on two of the remaining six for now; namely, Logik and Nashindwa. Sung in English, Lingala and French in different measures, Logik is, in tone and dance moves, a genre as far from Rumba as can be. It's a musical cocktail in a distinctly millennial style. That's to say, it has a beat, and dance memes, that place it at the very eye-of-the-storm that's today's youth-driven and increasingly borderless pop. But for the lyrics, and the people who play assigned roles in the clip, Logik might as well be a production out of New York City; or a major European city, for that matter -- which it most probably is in a literal sense. And yet Innoss'B's talent isn't getting as much attention in the social media as it truly deserves.

Christian Bella (Master of Melody), is a Congolese who has lived in Tanzania since 2006. He sings Nashindwa (= I'm beat) entirely in Swahili. But the lyrical tone is distinctly Lingala. So is the song's pervasive beat. The dancing that we see in the clip is a cross between Rumba and Soukous -- and consequently projects a slower version of Soukous. He may choose to live outside DR Congo, but Lingala isn't parting company with his musical muse.

Let's turn now to high-strung Yondo Sister, who sings both C'est Facile and Mwana Kento. The sounds in C'est Facile, we find, are pure melody, and are well interpreted by Yondo Sister's dancing belles. The mood that all the 'artwork' spreads is cabaret-like and all-alluring. And, out of the blue, the clip 'installs' a mellow ambience superbly tailored for a cocktail, or dinner, get-together of cool-society types -- products of multiple cultures and (ad)ventures. The inspired piano accompaniment just lets everything soar, and affirms -- affirms everything one would want affirmed. 

Mwana Kento is another thing altogether -- a moving and lyrical cultural statement. As an aural-ocular offering, it is an inspired and deeply touching, and perhaps 'possessed', feline-fed interpretation of the African spirit, which touches all things that there are to touch. The mood is deeply rooted in all that has (ever) happened in this big, big, big portion of Mother Earth -- and so, so deeply African. She, Yondo Sister, is the sole soul-sorceress here, at this moment in our time; an agile purveyor of our deep culture -- in its aural and all its danced dimensions. She's a true personification of it all.

The other female singer on the above list of six is Anita Mwarabu (in Swahili, it is tempting to translate this to Anita "The Arab"), already encountered in Bolingo Mabe (which she sings with such refinement with Innoss'B) and To Dondwa (with, among others, Fally Ipupa). Here, as already indicated, she sings a song with an English title, Kin Fever. She does not veer in any way here, or anywhere else we have seen her, toward any sort of avant garde frame of mind, contrary to what we will presently say of Yondo Sister. She just does what she's got to do, it seem, in the moment -- from song to song. 

She's proving that she is multi-talented, for sure, but is yet to affirm a distinct persona for her artistic calling. This is not necessarily a bad thing, though, since movie stars are not hampered by such. Many/most remain stars even though they play very different roles in their cinematic careers. What matters there is the quality of their performance from one movie to another. And yet we know that a good number of really outstanding stars are very particular about the roles that they agree to play, and that their fans have come to expect. The choice is as much the artiste's as it is the star's, and it is for the rest of us to judge.

Unlike Mbilia Bel -- who's always been "current" and flowing without sideshows with the LingalaPop flow of 'the day' -- Anita Mwarabu is unmistakably 'modern' in a different kind of way in Kin Fever, and thoroughly 'hip'. She's trendy and 'in the groove' here, and doesn't flinch. She's the epitome of the global "now". Just look at the body texts that populate the clip! And yet this is not typical Anita Mwarabu -- certainly not yet. She'll have to do more stuff like this for the divergent personae to stick, in a collective way, in her fans' minds. One doesn't know if she really wants to, or if this is a passing phase. We'll wait to see. But her performance in Kin Fever is good, regardless -- very good.

In general, it can be said that among the girls (and even among the men), Yondo Sister chose the avant garde path very early in her career, when the environment in which she grew up musically demanded only that one stayed "current" -- and flowed with 'it'. One detects great rebelliousness in her in this respect. The rebellion long ago became the habit that informs our reading of her art, and her approach to broader life. All of us who  savor her music and her characteristic counter-intuitive acts -- in sum, her magic -- we're all the richer for it. So ends my comments on the songs in Volume 9.

This growing selection of #LingalaPop titles, now in the ninth volume, includes a number about which I have made 'substantive' comments already or, alternatively, ranked in #TheYamboSelection series -- over the stretch of a few years. And, as mentioned in earlier volumes, I have restricted my commentary essentially to songs that have "reached my ears" in one way or another -- or, let's say it, via smart algorithms. It has not been a total scouring of the Great Lakes and Rivers (etc) universe -- which would have been an exercise in futility for one man.

The urge to share exemplary or exciting 'finds' on a particular list (scheduled or not) may prompt -- indeed already has (in #TheYamboSelection series), and in some instances perhaps should -- the publication of the list before the narratives related to particular titles are ready for release, or even 'fully' drafted. The fact is that there's just so much Lingala music from the past, leave alone the numbers being produced these days -- and increasingly "all over". The urge to share must keep reasonable pace with the volume and accelerating velocity of creative productions. 

The lister's and commentator's work is never done, experience teaches! Such comments as I have already made are available on this blog, but the links I give below take you only to the clips associated with the songs listed in Volume 9. Links to any comments that I will make in the days and months ahead about particular titles on the list below will be added to an updated version of this post as soon as those comments are ready to share. 

As has been the practice in earlier volumes, the songs appearing below are not arranged in any particular order of rank. I really love all of them, and think you will do so too. Let me also add that the 'burst' of incoming evidence that I have encountered as I have continued with my (re)search on songs that deserve inclusion means that we are now even closer to Volume 10 than imagined just three or so volumes back.

Here below are the video/audio clips that make up Volume 9:
Click (you may have to Right Click) the song of your choice on the list below, and then (if you have Right Clicked) choose the "Open link in new tab" option in order to watch or listen to the clip.

1. L'heure c'est L'heure by Madilu System ft. Wuta Mayi (2017?)
2. C'est Facile by Yondo Sister (2012)
3. Logik by Innoss'B (2017)
4. R.A.S. Rien A Signaler by Alain KounKou (2012)
5. Kin Fever by Anita Mwarabu ft. Oliverman (2016)
6. Jeudi Soir by Fally Ipupa (2017)
7. Mwana Kento by Yondo Sister (2013, Here's the 2008 ver.)
8. Zazou by Ferre Gola (2009)
9. Nashindwa by Christian Bella (2015) 
10. Pete by Alicios ft. Kidum (2016)


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Find below links to previous Volumes ~ 1 to 8:
1. LingalaPop, Volume 1
2. LingalaPop, Volume 2
3. LingalaPop, Volume 3
4. LingalaPop, Volume 4
5. LingalaPop, Volume 5 
6. LingalaPop, Volume 6
7. LingalaPop, Volume 7

8. LingalaPop, Volume 8

TMiF, aM, 2tBB

The Millennial
Is Father, and Mother, to
The Baby Boomer