In the 1980s, when he was still a teenager just approaching his twenties, Jean-Jacques Kibinda was already known as a drummer in the orchestras of his childhood Kinshasa neighborhood, Matete. He readily cites as one of his earliest comrades and influences his former neighbor, Sangwa Maray Maray, who enjoyed a certain amount of celebrity with Papa Wemba’s Viva Musica circa 1984. However, at the same time that he was drumming, JJK began to write dreamy, languorous lyrics and songs.

At the end of the 1980s, Karmpapa moved to Europe, El Dorado to many young Africans, where he spent more than ten years. It is in Europe where he began to think of returning to Kinshasa and pursuing singing and songwriting. With the assistance of a producer friend he put out his first album Je m’appelle toi under his new stage name, Karmapa.

Karmapa’s second album is entitled Temps de l’amour.