Ärsenik

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Ärsenik
Origin	Villiers-le-Bel, France
Genre(s)	French Rap

Ärsenik is a rap group based in Villiers-le-Bel, France, founded in 1992, and made up of two brothers, Lino (Gaëlino M'Bani) and Calbo (Calboni M'Bani), whose family is originally from Congo. Until 1997, the group also included Tony Truand, a cousin. In 1998, their first album "Quelques gouttes suffisent" went double gold.^{[citation needed]} A new album was planned for 2005, but the two brothers instead decided to concentrate on solo albums. Lino released "Paradis Assassiné" en 2005, which was the name of a solo song on the group's second album. In 2007 the group released a disc titled "S'il en reste quelque chose," which included the most popular songs from the two brothers, such as "L'enfer remonte à la surface", "Rime & chatiments" and "Sexe, pouvoir & biftons."

In the late 1990s, Lino and Calbo teamed up with a group of rappers who were also second-generation Africans, on a collaborative project called Bisso Na Bisso, an expression which means 'just between ourselves' in lingala, the most commonly spoken language in Congo. Part of this group were Ben-J (from Les Neg'Marrons), Passi (from Ministère A.M.E.R.), twin brothers Doc and G Kill (from 2Bal), and Mystik and his female cousin M'Passi. The group embarked on a collective return to their African roots, featuring music with an innovative fusion of styles, that mixed modern hip-hop and zouk sounds with traditional Congolese rumba. ^[1]

Revered as one of the original rap groups, their music voices the disaffection of the French underclass, combining African and Arabic melodies and beats with French lyrics. French rap is filled with slang that is hard for even French-speakers to understand; whole songs are delivered in Verlan, the ingenious, dizzying slang in which words are reversed or recombined. Like France's chanson tradition, French rap is also famous for emphasizing lyrics, and the rappers are widely viewed as heirs to the chansonniers.^[2]

1 Popularity
2 Discography
- 2.1 Group and solo Albums
3 See also
4 Footnotes
5 External links

[edit] Popularity

The French hip hop scene has been the world's most vibrant outside of the United States, yet it has been almost completely ignored by the American music press.^[3] French hip hop artists happen to be masters—rappers of amazing skill, style, and wit. Within France, especially among ten to twenty year-olds, hip hop is attracting more and more fans, and generating a lucrative market - France has become the second biggest homeland for hip-hop culture after the United States. French legislation on quotas, which obliges radio stations to broadcast a minimum 40% of French songs, has helped the spread of rap's popularity, bringing it out of the ghetto culture of the 1980s. Now that France has accepted hip hop and the culture surrounding it, with the aid of hip hop magazines and festivals that display the diverse facets of hip hop (dance, film, graffiti, etc.), the audience is no longer confined to just France. Its inspirations, Arabic and African melodies and beats, have enabled it to seep back into the African continent, the Middle East, and virtually conquer the world, where its vitality, diversity, and originality of rhymes and rhythms are embraced and appreciated.^[4]

[edit] Discography

[edit] Group and solo Albums

Ärsenik - Quelques gouttes suffisent... (1998, Hostile records) 1st album
Bisso Na Bisso - Racines (1999, Issap prod.) collectif regroupant Passi, Mystik, Ben-J (Nèg Marrons), 2Bal, Arsenik, M'Passi (Melgroove)
Ärsenik - Quelque chose à survécu (2002, Hostile records)
Lino - Paradis assassiné (2005, Hostile records) 1st solo album
Noyau Dur - Noyau Dur -album du collectif regroupant Arsenik, Neg' Marrons et Pit Baccardi. Date 26.12.05 (2005, Hostile records)