Sniper

Sniper was a French rap trio from Orléans that formed in the late 1990s, with members Tunisiano, Aketo, and Blacko. Their 2001 album "Gravé Dans La Roche" broke through in French hip-hop, anchored by the title track's plain-spoken reflections on everyday struggle. Songs like "Aketo vs Tunisiano" and "babylone brule" showed their knack for direct, conversational rapping about city life.

In 2003, Tunisiano served a four-month prison sentence for assaulting a police officer, which brought the group into public debates about police conduct. They kept recording through it, putting out albums like "Du rire aux larmes" that same year and "Trait Pour Trait" in 2006. Their lyrics often touched on social friction without grandstanding, as in tracks such as "Dans Mon Monde" and "Faut de tout pour faire un monde."

Tunisiano left in 2007 to work solo, and Aketo and Blacko carried on as a duo. They released "C'est la vie" in 2011 and "A toute épreuves" in 2014. The group's catalog holds a straightforward, grounded place in French rap, built more on observational writing than flash.