Nicknamed the ‘King of Rumba Rock’, the stylish Wemba was not just one of Congo’s most iconic musicians, but one of the most popular musicians of his time in Africa, a big figure in the world or music, and a film actor.
A while back I was doing some research on African music, and interviewed an obscure but very clever young African musician.
Off the cuff, he told me that the one thing that was most different between African musicians and those from the west, was the role of their music video.
“These days all musicians live and die by video, but the difference is that the really successful African ones often must also offer a unique dance routine,” he said.
No African musician of the second post-independence generation reimagined the video dance in that mold like Wemba.
