Tokooos

Tokooos is the fourth studio album by Congolese singer Fally Ipupa. It was released on July 7, 2017, by Elektra France, Warner Music France. After having established himself as a continental superstar singer in Africa with his first three albums solos, all produced by David Monsoh, Fally now wanted to open up to the French and more generally Western record market. Ipupa will be signed in 2013 by Julien Creuzard on the AZ label (subsidiary of Universal). But in 2016, Julien Creuzard left AZ to found the new label Elektra France, Fally is now under the label Elektra France.

Recording sessions took place from 2015 to 2017, with Fally himself and a lot of French music producers. Featured guest appearances include Booba, MHD, Aya Nakamura, KeBlack, Naza, Wizkid, R. Kelly, and Shay.

Tokooos is oriented towards R&B, trap and Afropop while keeping a touch of Congolese music with traditional Congolese guitar, the master instrument of Congolese rumba. After its release and in its first months of marketing, Tokooos was well received by the European public but a little less well by its African base public who saw this album as an album "made for European peoples".

The album debuted at number twenty eight on SNEP Top Albums in July 2017, number twenty one on Ultratop. It spent a total of 23 weeks on the French Top albums 200. Three years after its release, Tokooos achieved over 130 million streams on digital platforms.

Background
In April 2013, few days after releasing his third opus, Power "Kosa Leka", a rumba album much more oriented towards urban music than his two previous albums (Droit Chemin and Arsenal de Belles Melodies) with titles such as "Sweet Life" (alternately known as "La vie est belle"), "Service", "Ndoki", "Bruce", Fally sign a three album contract with the AZ label of the major Universal Music Group.

Before devoting himself to the realization of his third urban album, Fally takes care of putting forward his own label F'Victeam, which also operated as a backing band. On May 5, 2014, he released a single titled "Original" to promote F'Victeam. Following this, Fally produced and directed F'Victeam's debut album, Libre Parcours, a double album of twenty-three tracks where twenty members will have the chance to compose and, at times, perform a track. Fally contributed as a featured artist on seven tracks. The album was officially launched on March 10, 2015.

Themes and production
In mid-2013, Fally revealed that his forthcoming international album would be titled Neti Na Film, an aphorism translating to "Like in a movie," which encapsulates his new catchphrase. In October 2015, he announced a collaboration with Nigerian singer Wizkid.

On June 13, 2017, the project's name, cover art, and track list were unveiled, revealing that the album was named Tokooos and consisted of eighteen tracks. Tokooos stands out from Fally's previous works as it entirely adopts an urban style with a blend of R&B, Congolese rumba, Afropop, and rap. With the exception of Power 'Kosa Leka' , the album features collaborations exclusively with artists of African descent. The roster includes French rappers Booba (featured on "Kiname") and MHD (on "Na Lingui Yé"), Wizkid (on "Yakuza"), the duo KeBlack & Naza (on "Mannequin"), singers Shay (on "Guerrier") and Aya Nakamura (on "Bad Boy"), and the American singer R. Kelly (on "Nidja"). Tokooos received criticism for the limited use of Lingala and the preference for French and English,  although three tracks are entirely rendered in Lingala: "Posa," "Eloko Oyo," and "Champ," the latter echoing the style of "Original".

Promotion and singles
The lead single, "Kiname," premiered on December 7, 2016, and was announced on November 23, 2016, by Booba on Instagram with a brief excerpt of the instrumental. Fally revealed the song's release date on December 4, 2016, three days in advance. The single reached 10th place for best-selling singles in its first week of operation. The music video appeared on December 14, 2016 on the occasion of Fally's birthday. It swiftly attained commercial success, debuting at No. 1 on Topsify's Rap R&B playlist and reaching No. 1 on French iTunes within 24 hours. The accompanying "Kiname dance challenge" gained traction across various social media platforms and was endorsed by celebrities. Notables such as Nigerian singer Davido, Cameroonian rapper Stanley Enoh, and footballers Djibril Cissé and Alex Song participated in the challenge. "Kiname" was certified gold single by SNEP on May 16, 2017.

The second music video of the album, "Eloko Oyo," premiered on April 7, 2017. The song is a cover of the title "Visa Bomengo" by the late Congolese singer Mabelé Elissi. Before its release as a studio song, it was a traditional song belonging to the Mongo ethnic group. Fally faced accusations of plagiarism by Elissi's musicians, which were denied by the latter's widow, who claimed to have officially granted Fally official permission to re-record the song. "Eloko Oyo" quickly garnered over ten million YouTube views in a month. On June 16, while making Tokooos available for pre-order, Fally issued, without announcement, the "Bad Boy", a track that contains a sample of a guitar riff played by Simaro Lutumba in his 1982 TPOK Jazz song "Faute ya Commerçant". It was certified gold on 3 November and platnum on 4 March 2024 by SNEP.

As part of the promotion of Tokooos, Fally was slated to perform at La Cigale in Paris on June 22, 2017. However, the concert was annulled the preceding day by the Paris Police Prefecture, citing potential "serious disturbances to public order" instigated by the Combatants, critics of the DRC's prevailing regime, who denounce Congolese artists performing in Europe, perceiving them as affiliates of the Congolese government.

After the release of the project, Fally pushed the promotion to the maximum by granting interviews to French medias like Le Monde, Paris Match, to channels France 24, Africa 24, TV5 Monde, BFM TV, and to radio channels RFI, Africa Radio and to a few websites like OKLM.com. Skyrock, notably devotes a week to him on Planète Rap.

Two tours were organized for the album, collectively known as the Tokooos Tour, with approximately fifty concerts held in various international cities. The first leg commenced on 2 September 2017, in Lomé, Togo, and concluded on 19 February 2018 in Los Angeles,   with concerts and showcases held in cities such as Nairobi, Lyon, Bordeaux, Frankfurt, Kinshasa, Brazzaville, Cotonou, Lusaka, Bamako, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Abidjan, and Luanda. He capped off 2017 by winning the title of "Best International Artist of the Year" in the Skyrock 2017 awards. The second leg was launched in March–August 2018 and featured a series of concerts and showcases in several countries, including Spain, France, Senegal, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Norway, Italy, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Botswana.

On 10 October 2022, Tokooos was certified gold in France by SNEP, with sales exceeding 50,000 copies, and went platinum in 2024. Ipupa became the first Kinshasa-based Congolese artist to obtain a gold record certified by SNEP as well as the first soloist from Central Africa to achieve this feat. Tokooos also became the second album from Central Africa to receive a gold disc certification by the SNEP, following Bisso Na Bisso in 1999 with the album Racines.