Petit Pays

PETIT PAYS was born on the 5th of June 1967 in Douala. he was brought up entirely by his grandmother. He was named Petit Moundy Claude Adolphe. Moundy in the Douala language literally means pays in French what explains the origin of the nickname he chose as his stagename.

As a teenager Petit Pays thought of commencing a professional football career, but his passion for music appeared stronger. During his secondary school he took guitar lessons and started to stay away from school, spending sleepness nights te rehearse vocals and instrumental interpretations of populair songs.

Against all odds, despite family pressure, Petit Pays gradually abandoned his study to dedicate himself to his future musical career. In the 80's finding a local producer was an incredible challenge for artists. In those days for many of them emigrate to France was the only possibility to achieve their dreams. In 1985, with the support of his understanding mother and his uncle Jaba, the future African music star flew to Paris.

Upon his arrival, he immediately started to search for a producer. Unfortunately in 1986, during the Giscard government, with Charles Pasqua as Minister of Internal Affairs, the official studies of Petit Pays stopped. Soon after Petit Pays finds himself with handcuffs in an airplane direction Yaoundé.

His expulsion from the French territory inspired him to write the song 'Ca fait mal' in which he describes his administrative detention and deportation. This and other songs drew the attention of producer Joseph Eyabi Kwadi and in December 1987 Petit Pays released his first LP 'Ca fait mal' on Eyab's Production. With this album het set his first step towards the top.

A year later in December 1988, he came with his second album 'Ancien parigo' which established him as a young talented Makossa singer, appreciated by the majority of his compatriots with songs like 'A mumi' and 'Salamalekum'. Very proactive, he did a lot of free services for associations and Afro-Caribbean clubs to confirm his talent and enhance his brand awareness in the Cameroon and Paris music-scene. He released his third album 'Trouver la vie' in 1990.

♫ audio 1990: Trouver La Vie 

Petit Pays having conquered his homeland Cameroon, now had the ambition to conquer the rest of Africa, Europe and North America. To reach his goals he developed the concept of Makossa-Love - a mixture of Makossa, Zouklove and Congolese styles - and founded his own orchestra Les Sans Visa. The name of this orchestra refers to his expulsion from France to Cameroon in 1986.

For his fourth album he teamed up with the successful Cape Verdean keyboard player and arranger Manu Lima, who was responsible for the Afro-Zouk success of the Gabonese Oliver Ngoma (Bane) and the Ivorian Monique Seka (Missounwa). This collaboration proved to be a hit because the album 'Les morts ne sont pas mort' made Petit Pays a household name in the whole of francophone Africa. In March 1992 the uptempo song 'Eyamoyo' went number 1 in music charts in Abidjan, Lomé, Ouagadougou, Libreville, Niamey, while the Caribbean were madly in love with the Makossa-Love song 'Ca ne va pas'. His band 'les Sans Visa' now came in handy, because the success of the album 'Le morts ne sont pas mort' led to extensive tours in Africa, North America, The Caribbean and Europe.

♫ audio 1992: Eyamoyo

 

Petit Pays cashed the momentum by coming directly in 1993 with a sequel album titled 'Avant gout' in the same Makossa-Love style. Songs like 'Mulema' , 'C'est bon' et 'Mumi' were widely played and the album reached the top of many radio hit parades. It was in this period of Pan-African success that Petit Pays coronates himself as Le Turbo d'Afrique. He could not be stopped anymore and the hit songs followed each other in quick succession with 'NioXXer' from the album 'Les meilleur des meilleurs' in 1994 and 'Muto' from the album 'Korta' in 1995. Even school kids sang his refrains like "A Abidjan ca nioxxe, a Etoudi ca nioxxe, nioxxer, nioxxer" and "Chop my mob, I buy you Solex".

♫ audio 1994: NioXXer

In May 1966, he released his seventh album 'Class F/ Class M', which was the most mediatised of Petit Pays albums. In less than a week more than 50.000 copies were sold only in Cameroon. Soon after the release of the album he was declared "wanted" by the Cameroon National Security because he was enacted as "a fool" who violated modesty by posing nude on the cover of the album.He hastely left Cameroon and his mother was imprisoned for some time.

Petit Pays lets the tornado to pass away before returning to Cameroon and continued producing more albums, sometimes solo and sometimes with his band 'Les Sans Visa'. The band became a breeding pond and career machine for new talents like Njohreur and samy Diko among others, who are now established artists. Today Petit Pays has a net worth of 1.2 biljon FCFA and has diversified his activities with construction projects. In the past decade he has carried out at least three projects in different districts to improve local road connections.

Although he is seen by everyone in Cameroon as a very successful man, he remains an unpredictable rebel, who still manages to shock the Cameroon community regularly. For instance in 2005 when he dressed like a woman on the cover of his album 'La Monako'. Or in 2007 when he relased 'Frotambo' which contains the song 'Les pedes'.

♫ audio 2005: La monako

♫ video clip 2007: Les pedes

Very few African artists have dared to break the taboo on subjects like travesty and homosexuality. In Cameroon, a country where homophobia is exacerbated, Petit Pays did it in his song 'Les pedes' singing: "Love has no borders, I'm crazy about you, you're crazy about me, friends, why do you mind us, we love each other" - and then - "everybody is against us, we do not care".
Two years later he surprised the Cameroonians again, as he was seen at T.B. Joshua's Synagoge Church of All Nations in Lagos on Emmanuel TV. He declared he has given his live to Jesus Christ and born again. Later that same year Petit Pays released the album 'Caiman' as elected president of the Caiman Football Club in Douala, followed in 2010 by the album 'God go pay'.

♫ videoclip 2010: - God go pay 

June 11, 2011 Petit Pays represented Cameroon at the African Night at the Stade de France. He was accompanied by his band 'Le Sans Visa' and his famous group of dancers 'Les Turbines'.

♫ live 11/6/11 Stade de France  
♫ live 2017: Essen Germany

To date he has more than 40 albums to his name. Unlike many other successful African music stars Petit Pays decided to live in his native country. He lives in his self-built 'palace' in Douala Makepe neighbourhood, which has a street bearing his name. In 2015 he launched his own reality TV series titled 'Ma vie de Super Star' where he lets his fans into his private life as the superstar who has sold by now more than 35 million albums worlwide. Despite his provocative, seemingly often contradictory behaviour, all Petit Pays rebelliuos expressions seem to serve a common purpose, namely to contribute to more tolerance and mutual understanding.

♫ videoclip 2015: Classe supérieure
♫ videoclip 2016: Peur dans la cité
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DISCOGRAPHY

Nkotti Francois a.k.a. Destoppeleire 15/2/1953 - 4/8/2021

NKOTTI FRANCOIS was born in 1953 in Souza, a small town of the Littoral region of Cameroun. He spent his childhood there, where he attended the Catholic Mission and later, the St Herbert secundary school of Souza. He took his first steps in music while attending the Catholic mission of Souza as an altar boy. In the 60’s at the age of 12, playing with his guitar made out of bark, he founded his first band, the Paris Jazz Orchestra and gave performances at funerals as well as at town’s fairs and reunions. Due to a lack of funds, he was unable to persue his studies to become a priest, his childhood dream. Therefore, he decided to fully dedicate himself to music.

Francois arrived in Douala in 1970, and quickly became a singer for a cabaret orchestra called La Famille Bar, led by Nkotti Augustin and located in the district of Deido. Night after night, he felt more and more confident on stage, but after some arguments within the band, he decided to leave the group.

 
In 1972 he was hired by Toto Ekane Felix, the owner of the Davoum Club, a cabaret located in the popular district of Akwa. Known in the 60’s as Pachanga Cabaret Dancing, this place was very popular with veterans of Cameroonian music such as Emmanuel Nelle Eyoum. In the Davoum Club he soon became a key member of the cabaret orchestra, singing with them every evening. One night, a guitarist arrived and asked to play with the group. He turned out to be a very good musician, who was familiar with all the popular songs of the time. Nkotti Francois asked the guitarist Mouelle Jean, to join them. After a while, Mouelle Jean introduces Toto Guillaume, a friend who was a solo guitarist to Nkotti Francois, and who subsequently introduced Francois to Essongue Antoine, a drummer. On another occasion Emile Kangue - a bassist and singer – asked to play along with them on stage, and also ended up joining the group. Step by step all the original musicians of the cabaret orchestra were replaced. In fact, it was now a completely new band and that included a new name. Toto Guillaume suggested "Black Styl", a name to which the other band members unanimously agreed. Unfortunately for the new formed band, Los Calvinos - a competitor orchestra led by Misse Ngoh - which was very fashionable at the time, managed however to convince the owner of the "Davoum Club" to replace the "Black Styl".

Nkotti Francois went looking for a solution and found it in Bonaberi, a neighbouring municipality of Douala. He visited the Oryx Club, and asked the owner if the Black Styl could perform there. The owner agreed, and was after the show so convinced of the band’s qualities, that he contracted the Black Styl as his house band. From that moment, the popularity of the Black Styl really soared. Every evening the band played popular songs from Cameroon and all around the world, attracting people from Bonaberi and Douala.

Although thrilled by their growing success, the band members wanted to record their own type of Makossa , which became more and more popular after the worldwide success of Manu Dibango with his hit Soul Makossa in 1973/1974. Toto Guillaume took the initiative to write a letter to the French record label Sonafric asking if they were willing to release some of their songs. Sonafric responded with interest and asked the band to send a demo. Nkotti Francois, Toto Guillaume, Emile Kangue and Mouelle Jean composed two songs each. All the eight songs were recorded and sent to France. Sonafric selected two songs. Na bolone ndol'a ngo - better known as Francoise- composed by Toto Guillaume and Ndutu, composed by Nkotti Francois) which were pressed on the same 45rpm single. The songs were extremely successfull, putting the Black Styl on the spotlight of the 70’s Cameroon music scene. Not long after, the band was contracted by a Cameroonian record label, Disques Cousin, which will later release many of their successful 45rpm singles.

♫ Audio: 1974 – Nkotti Francois & Black Styl - Ndutu 4:02

In 1976 the Black Styl left the "Orix Bar" in Bonaberi to play at the Joie d'Ete cabaret, and then at the Mermoz Bar. It is during this time that Toto Guillaume left the group because he had the opportunity to study music in Paris. He was replaced by Monny Muller. In 1977, the band recorded their first LP with Disques Cousin, De Bonaberi à Douala, the only album of Nkotti Francois and the Black Styl recorded in Cameroon. Their following albums were all recorded in Paris. In 1978 the Black Styl travelled to France to record their second album, Les Black Styl à Paris in the Marcadet recording studio. They performed in multiple French cities, including Lyon and Paris at the Bataclan concert hall. 

♫ Audio: 1977 – Nkotti Francois & Black Styl – Black Styl Mwasa 4:43

After 1980, the momentum for the Black Styl seems to have passed. After some internal tensions, Emile Kangue left in 1979 to build a solo career. Also the personal problems of Monny Muller have a negative impact on the band. Although Nkotti Francois tries to keep the Black Styl alive until the nineties, he too chose to concentrate on building a solo career. In the years that followed, Nkotti Francois released ten new LPs and CDs under his own name, in addition to several compilation albums. 

♫ Audio: 1981 – Nkotti Francois – Na Ma Timba Souza 7:38

♫ Audio: 1985 – Nkotti Francois – Nkowanga 6:22

♫ Audio: 1989 – Nkotti Francois – Na Dedi Mbaka 5:52

♫ Video Clip: 1993 – Nkotti Francois – Benyenge Ba Desto 6:58

He also releases three albums under the name Black Styl. From 2000 his album production slowly declined although he continued to perform regularly and released a few songs from time to time. In 2005, he visited the United States and performed in Washington and Chicago, among other places. In 2007, he gave a number of concerts in France and in 2011 in Canada, where he celebrated his 40th anniversary as a musician during performances for the Cameroonian community there. In 2015, he released a new album entitled Ekwad'a Mulema. 

♫ Video Clip: 2015 – Nkotti Francois – Ekwad’a MUlema 5:28

He is then 65 years old. In 2017, he achieves another modest international success when the French record label Nangaboka Records re-releases the first Black Styl album De Bonaberi à Douala. Also in 2018, the small independent label Ketu Records releases 12inch maxi single containing two songs from the 1980 album Nkotti Francois et les Black Styl. 

♫ Live: 2018 – Nkotti Francois – 0:00 Njaka – 8:42 Muwaso Ma Longe – 12:14 Loko La Mboa

Mutzig Star winning artists

The fact that Nkotti Francois' album production slowly declined in the new millennium, did not mean that he has slowed down. On the contrary, as his solo career slowed down, his activities in the service of young musical talent and the community increased. In 1989, together with the Mutzig brewery, he founded a very successful annual musical talent hunt called Mutzig Star, which later resulted in the breakthrough of artists such as Benji Mateke, Longue Longue and Belka Tobis.

Since 1993, he has also been the main promoter and organiser of the successful cultural festival FOMARIC (Foire Musicale Artistique Industrielle et Commerciale), which is held annually in Douala and will have its 30th edition in 2022. He has also been increasingly involved in local politics since the early 2000s, calling attention to issues such as the environment, youth, health and education. Between 2002 and 2011, he was twice elected mayor of Bonalea, a municipality north of Douala. 

In 2021, Nkotti Francois celebrated not only his 70th birthday, but also the 50th anniversary of his career. To mark the occasion, a 290-page biography entitled On m'apelle Desto plus an audio video box set of 3CDs and a DVD entitled Merci was released in February 2021. Afterwards, the birthday jubilee he gave two festive concerts in Douala and Yaoundé on 19 March and 26 March.

♫ Live: 2021 – Nkotti Francois & Toto Guillaume – Francoise 5:42

Unfortunately, not long after these festive anniversary activities, Nkotti Francois' health unexpectedly and rapidly declined. After a short illness, he breathed his last on 4 August at the Douala General Hospital. After a musical career spanning 50 years, this musical giant has left us. He leaves behind seven children, 10 grandchildren, dozens of singles, LPs, CDs, a talent show that has been successful for decades and a flourishing festival as a reminder of a rich life in the service of Cameroonian music culture.

Discography Nkotti Francois