 A rising musician since the 1980s, Remmy Ongala was part of the soukous scene (also known as "Congolese rumba").In 1978 he travelled to Dar es Salaam where he joined Orchestra Makassy.Later with his own band, Orchestre Super Matimila (named after the businessman who owned the band's instruments), he helped to transmit the soukous style to the Tanzanian musical subculture often called Ubongo, the Swahili word for brain.