Sniper is a French hip hop Band from the Val-d'Oise department. The group consists of Tunisiano (Bachir Baccour), Aketo (Ryad Selmi), and Blacko, formerly Black Renega (Karl Appela).
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The members of Sniper first met at the 1997 Francofolies festival at La Rochelle. There, DJ Boudj and the three rappers Aketo, Tunisiano, and Blacko met and decided to form the group, originally called Personnalité suspecte (Suspicious Character). This name was abbreviated to Persni and finally ended up as Sniper, an example of the French slang form, known as verlan.[1]
The three members form a complementary group, as Aketo and El Tunisiano have developed more of a rap style and Blacko prefers an approach closer to reggae; meanwhile DJ Boudj takes care of the scratching. They began by making appearances on various mixes and compilations, such as The Power of Unity, Première classe (First Class) and B.O.S.S..
The group has had multiple legal battles, notably for their lyrics in songs such as La France and for a song on the conflict in the Middle East called Jeteur de pierres (Stone-thrower). The group was acquitted by the court of Rouen of charges based on La France but were later accused of antisemitism based on their treatment of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on their second album, which provoked the ire of several Jewish organizations. The Minister of the Interior at the time, Nicolas Sarkozy, called them "ruffians who dishonor France."
Sniper's career officially began in January 2001, with the release of their first album, From the laughter to the tears under the label Desh Music. The album title indicates the philosophy of the group: a mixture of humor (of a verbal tournament between Aketo and Tunisiano) and from more serious texts (Taken for target), run in varied energetic tempos. Song topics can be found in everyday life: racism, exits, girls. They do not forsake the rap form but avoid contributing to the stereotype of rap music as ghetto music. The track list is as follows.
This album went double gold with more than 250,000 album sold.
In spring 2003, the group produced a more refined album, Carved in stone. This opus covers many subjects like the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with “Rock thrower”, global warming on "Chaotic vision" or the idleness of certain young people in “Too fast”. Lighter titles are not in "Process 2003" and "House receipt". The most known singles are "Sans (re)pères" (without father/point) and "Engraved in stone". "Panam All Starz" is a piece which gathers various artists of the Paris area, each one representing a department:
The track list is as follows:
As the group's popularity grew, so did their fan base. This popularity showed in the second album which sold more than 400.000 copies, nearly double the sales of their previous album. This success was notably due to the fact that they were less crude and refined their lyrics in order to produce a quality album.
May 22, 2006, Sniper returned on the scene of French rap. A few weeks after its release, their album placed n°1 in sales. However, the group changed. DJ Boudj left Sniper. The reasons were not detailed but it would be considered to be an argument, ”as in any family" explains one of the remaining members of the group. At that time, the group marked a clear evolution reaching a certain maturity whose first steps were already perceptible in their second album Engraved in stone.
With this album, Sniper reached more than 1 million copies for all 3 albums and thus confirmed themselves as one the best rap artists in France.
In three albums, Sniper convinced rap fans in France that they were interested in many subjects, quite different from one to the other, such as religion, international conflicts like Iraq-US, Palestine-Israel, or love, respect, resentment, various injustices & inequalities, immigration, the difficulties of life in the suburbs, the real/fake dream of occident and racism, etc.
The group is subject to heteroclite influences: old style rap, in particular under the influence of Aketo, as well as drawing from texts in Arab, sung by El Tunisiano, but also Blacko's reggae work.
The group confirmed that a fourth album would appear once they finished their respective solos. However, Blacko announced the 20th of February 2008 that he had separated himself from the group Sniper since July 2007. Intersection, the bonus for the album of Tunisiano in the works on February 25, 2008, will be, therefore, the last piece of the complete group. So a fourth album is not on the agenda any more.