We visit Congo, Kinshasa  and the West Indies via France.  Kaysha is a man of music this month. Kaysha is an African musician who got his breakthrough within a genre of music that is played almost solely in the West Indies.

Kaysha was born in1974 in the DRC and immigrated to France at a young age.  He found that there was a genre of music that actually called to him.  That genre of music was Zouk which is described as "s a synthesis of Caribbean popular styles, especially Dominica cadence-lypso, Guadeloupean biguine, and Haitian cadence. Zouk arose in the late 1970s and early 1980s, using elements of previous styles of Antillean music, as well as imported genres.^" It is a great genre to explore.   Kaysha's first single was a sample off the Kassav, Oule.  From there he went on to explore other genres  of music, Hip Hop and R and B in particular.  One of the wonderful things about Kaysha is his ability to work with other musicians within other genres of music.  He is also a producer of great repute.  When Kaysha and Teeyah (Ivory Coast) do a song together,   all, we can say, is o lalalalala.  This is great!!!!   Kaysha, has produced several  West Indies Zouk artists.  You can google his name to find out. He has also won several awards and has appeared on CNN and other noteworthy shows and sites.   Enjoy this interview

In your own words - what genre does your music fall under? is it zouk or kizomba or...?

Pan-African music. I'm all about the message so I can't be really defined in terms of genres. You can recognize my music when you hear it but I can go anywhere, my genre is freedom.

How has the response been to your music?

Well, deep. Some people grew up with me and saw me evolve, some others just got on the train and are still in explore mode. Some love the rapper, some love the love songs. I gotta say I'm blessed with the response from all around the world.

 Have you won awards for your music?

A couple which  includes Koras, Platinum and Gold and of course  other obscure prizes but it is still good to have them. 

You are considered as being one of the sexiest African male performers  how do you deal with the attention from the ladies.?

And I'm not even sexy but oh well...In life you have to assume everything to live peacefully so that's what I do...I try to see who loves me for me, my music, by interest and from that I see what behavior I need to use...It's beautiful to see someone cry when you sing or people talking about using your song as their wedding song, it's just beautiful. When music comes from the heart, it touches the heart...

What challenges did you face when you decided to be a musician?

Coming from a high society African family, at first I didn't want to disappoint my parents so I had to work hard at school and  University. And then when you have too much ideas and potential, people sometimes don't understand where you are trying to go because they are so unwilling to try new things. I had to travel around the world to understand that what I needed to do was to have a global strategy from day one.

What was your most memorable performance?

There has been too many wonderful moments to pick one. Too many countries, too many precious moments...

It's not perfect, it's just deep. Once I was doing a show and fell hard on the floor and hurt myself really badly, but people thought it was part of a choreography and started screaming louder so with all the pain, I acted as if it was a sexy move and stayed on the ground until the pain was gone and I could walk again... They loved it but my dancers were laughing so hard behind me...

What do you do for fun?

I like to go in the park with my son and watch him enjoy life. I like to go to the movies, restaurant with my friends, clubbing, make music.  I also enjoy working with talented artists.

What advice will you give young African artists that will love to go  into music?

Sky is the limit. Work hard and don't wait for anyone. Making music is easier than ever before. A mic, a computer, a myspace, itunes and you can start making your name. But it takes true hard work, a good spirit, blood sweat & tears to become an African Icon