Arsenik

Ärsenik emerged as a French rap duo when brothers Lino (Gaëlino M'Bani) and Calbo (Calboni M'Bani), both of Congolese heritage, formed the group in Villiers-le-Bel, France, during 1992. Their first two albums reached the Top Ten, yet further releases remained infrequent. Following several years of compilation and mixtape work, the duo issued their debut full-length Quelques Gouttes Suffisent... in 1998 through the EMI subsidiary Hostile Records. Some listeners regard the project as Ärsenik’s finest hour; it became a breakthrough, climbing into the Top Ten of the French album chart and yielding the Top 50 single “Affaires de Famille.” Building on that momentum, Lino and Calbo joined Bisso Na Bisso, a French rap collective also rooted in Congolese heritage and featuring Passi, Mystik, Ben-J, 2Bal, and M’passi. The short-lived ensemble delivered the studio album Racines... and the live set Le 15 Mai 1999 in 1999 before disbanding. Ärsenik resurfaced a few years afterward with the 2002 follow-up Quelque Chose a Survécu..., another Top Ten entry on the French albums chart propelled by the singles “P.O.I.S.O.N.” and “Regarde le Monde.” In the years that followed, the brothers focused on solo endeavors while restricting Ärsenik activity to sporadic compilation tracks and side projects, among them the French rap collective Noyau Dur alongside Pit Baccardi and Neg’ Marrons. Lino proved the more prolific, releasing his solo album Paradis Assassiné in 2005. When five years elapsed without another Ärsenik studio effort, EMI assembled the best-of collection Le Meilleur de l’Ärsenik in 2007.