Famla – Tim & Foty, 1982

🎤🥁🪗🎸🇨🇲 Cousins Maurice Foty and Jean-Marie Tiam left a lasting mark on Cameroonian music with their duo, Tim & Foty, with no less than seven albums produced between 1977 and 1982. Their first hit, Douala by night, was an Afro-funk success, later plagiarized by Missy Elliott, and the cause of a lawsuit that eventually resulted in a settlement between the artists. Tim & Foty’s cocktail of lead vocals and funk-spiked makossa worked wonders, as on Famla, one of their last records, released in the early ’80s. At the same time, the two cousins don’t do things by halves, with the help of Jacky Arconte, Denis Hekimian on drums and Jean-Claude Naimro on piano. Sue Ellen, which opens the album, is one of the hits, driven by Jean-Yves Messan’s volcanic bass line. Famla alternates high-flying makossas and steel guitar-infused ballads, before closing with Wooh Mouen Wooh, a reggae with a slightly disco feel. The duo ceased operations when each embarked on his solo career, and Maurice Foty sadly passed away in 2011.