Emotion

African “pop,” although still relegated to the “World Music” corner at record stores, was having a real moment in the mid ‘90s after King Sunny Ade’s Juju Music opened the doors a decade earlier. Papa Wemba’s Emotion, released on world music label par excellence Real World Records in 1995 rode this wave all the way to the top, and became a massive international hit. Wemba rose to fame in the 1970s after co-founding Zaiko Langa Langa, a group who changed the history of rumba and laid the foundations for soukous, and continued to grow in popularity with Viva la Musica until reaching basically cult status across Africa. Emotion definitely leans into that 1990s pop sound (maybe a little too much on the Otis Redding cover, perhaps on the back of Youssou N’Dour’s massive success with 7 Seconds the year before), and might not be one for the soukous purists, but it exemplifies Wemba’s crystal clear, high pitched voice and versatility, moving from the fast paced “Yolele” and “Mandola” to delicate ballads like “Rail on” or Cuban-inflected rumba of “Epelo.”