Esta música tiene una semilla grande de Cuba en el Congo en las décadas posteriores a la independencia, la edad de oro de la rumba congoleña ( Franco , Tabu Ley Rochereau ...). La rumba congoleña, cantada en lingala , se convertirá en el soukous , y ndombolo cuarta y quinta generaciones de la música congoleña, ( Koffi Olomide , Papa Wemba ...) incorporando las influencias locales y el Caribe.

Papa Noel (whose stage name comes from the fact he was born Antoine Nedule Monswet on Christmas day 1940) is a veteran of the golden age of Congolese music. In the 1940s and 50s Congolese rumba, until then performed traditionally on lokole log drum and sanza thumb piano was modernised by a group of pioneers. They transformed it by playing it on electric guitar, Latin congas and brass instruments.