Sniper is a French hip hop band formed in 1997 in Val-d'Oise. It currently consists of Tunisiano (Bachir Baccour), Aketo (Ryad Selmi) and Blacko. Afrikaf (Karl Appela) was also a member from the group's formation in 2004. Blacko had left the band in 2007, but returned in 2016. Beginnings 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. 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.. Career Sniper's career officially began in January 2001, with the release of their first album, Du rire aux larmes (From laughter to tears) on the Desh Music label. The album title indicates the philosophy of the group: a mixture of humor (of a verbal tournament between Aketo and Tunisiano) and more serious texts ("Pris Pour Cible"), 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 album went double gold with more than 250,000 albums sold. In spring 2003, the group produced a more refined album, Gravé dans la roche (Carved in stone). This album covers many subjects like the Israeli–Palestinian conflict with "Jeteur de pierres" (Stone thrower), global warming on "Visions chaotiques" (Chaotic visions) or the idleness of certain young people in Trop vite" (Too fast). Lighter titles are not in "Processus 2003" and "Recette maison" (House recipe). The best known singles are "Sans (re)pères" (Without point/father) and "Gravé dans la roche" (Engraved in stone). "Panam All Starz" is a piece which gathers various artists of the Paris area, each one representing a department: Haroun (75th department), Mano Kid Mesa (77th), L'Skadrille (78th), Sinik and Diam's (91st), Salif and Zoxea (92nd), Tandem (93rd), 113 (94th) and Sniper (95th) As the group's popularity grew, so did their fan