Manu Dibango died in Paris at the age of 86 on Tuesday (24/03/2020) after contracting the Coronavirus COVID-19.
And fans took over internet this week with the news of his death. But Why? and Who was Manu Dibango?
Dibango was a pioneer Camerronian Jazz musician. Born in Douala Cameroon in 1933 and attended school in France, he became a musician after taking passion for Jazz and even saw Louis Armstrong playing. He joined the group “Africa Jazz” and returned to Paris in 1965. He created a sort of Afro-jazz-funk hybrid and has an international hit in 1972 with “Soul Makossa”. Dibango enjoyed a long and fruitful career and continued to record and tour as recent as last year.
What is that to do with Michael Jackson you asked? Well, very simple, in the 1972 song “Soul Makossa” the song began with “mama-say, mama-sa, mamakossa” which Michael Jackson allegedly took and put in the 1983 hit “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin'”.
Dibango sued Michael Jackson just after over the incredited interpolation and won in a 1986 court settlement with an undisclosed fee on a million francs (before the Euro).
20 years later, Dibango sued again Michael Jackson and Rihanna for her sampled segment in “Don’t Stop the Music” but this time he lost the court case.
Here the 1972 version of the song;
He even redone a version of the song and called it “Soul Makossa 2.0”;
Now you know why some of the fans have been sharing the news of his passing.
Help me sing it, ma ma se
Ma ma sa, ma ma coo sa
Ma ma se, ma ma sa
Ma ma coo sa
RIP Manu Dibango
