In late 1999 Koffi faced what proved to be his biggest setback yet : After a concert staged in Paris , He had a disagreement with several members of his band who then decided to quit the band and form their own band which they aptly named Quartier Latin Academia. Among the stalwarts who left the band were Modogo Sam, Lebou Kabuya , and Suzuki.
Koffi OLOMINDE.
It is rumoured that they were disgruntled at not getting a fair share of the band’s earnings. Koffi has also been at odds with several Zairean musicians many of whom accuse him of being arrogant, while He accuses him of jealousy.
The most notable of these is Papa Wemba who launched a scathing attack on Koffi in one of his albums Mzee Fula Ngege . Koffi responded to the attacks in his album Attentat .
The biggest question on his fan’s minds is Will he continue his success into the new millenium or will this defection spell the beginning of his decline.
However, Koffi once again confounded critics when his album Attentat which he released immediately after the defection was a major success.
In 2001, Koffi and Quartier Latin released two more albums, Force de Frappe and Effrakata . In addition, Koffi embarked on his first ever tour of the US.
The tour was however marred by poor organization , leading to fan disencchantment in some cases. Nevertheless Koffi and Quairtier Latin gave some scintillating performances.
Effrakata was a widely succesful album and signalled Koffi’s triumpahnt return to Tcha Tcho. It was a double disc album featuring 8 songs on each disc.
The majority of the songs in the album are irresistible ballads, featuring refreshing choruses and excellent vocals from Koffi, Fally Ipupa , Soleil ,Gipson and Bouro Mpela who makes a happy return to the band.
Fally in particular is outstanding with his golden tenor voice which is reminiscent of the late Djo Mpoyi of TPOK Jazz. The string section of Binda Bass, Felly Tyson and Ramazani provide excellent rythms and irresistible sebene’s.
Indeed This album is a triumph for Koffi Olomide and signalled that the band had finnaly recovered from the 1999 debacle when most of the key band members left.
To further add to his problems, many will recall the humiliation Koffi suffered when his limousine was flagged down in Kinshasa by security personnel in 2001.
He defied the order, but they later caught up with him, pulled him out of his Mercedes Compressor and allegedly flogged him in public.
However, Koffi put the setbacks behind and set out to rebuild his career. He recruited new musicians, including General Defao’s long-time associate Montana Kamanga, and went on to eclipse everybody else at last year’s Kora Awards, emerging Africa’s leading musician.
At the Kora awards of 2002, he won a record 4 awards including one for Best African artiste. It sent a clear message to many of his detractors who claimed his career was on the decline after being deserted by 12 of his band members.
In 2003 he embarked on yet another tour of Europe. with the highlight being a show at the Zenith Hall in Paris, where he launched his latest album Affaire D’etat on April 12. And classic Koffi style he dubbed himself “Quadra Kora Man”, in reference to the 4 awards he won.
Desperate to make up for the fiasco that was his 2001 tour of North America, Koffi returned to the US in June of 2003. The tour takes in 12 cities. This time the performaces were scintillating and received rave reviews.
