Alliance Ethnik (your spelling was right in french, but they choosed
this one :) is having a big hit since a few months here in France with
"respect". The name of their LP is "simple et funky", and that's what
they sound like: lyrics about having fun, being happy, music in the
same vein (I think this is getting typical of what could be a 'french
style', you know little hawayan guitar riffs, beats with a small
gentle disco-touch, feeling like sitting in under a tree on a very
sunny day - like on some tracks of "a finest fusion of black tempo",
the old Yellow Prod. compilation), but still funky (the two DJs, whose
names I forgot, won a second price on an international DJ contest
(sorry, forgot this name as well), but I don't know if this means a
lot, anyway they are quite respected here in France). I would say they
are more like Fabe or Menelik than NTM, and that's why they have such
a success here, being played on really bullshit radios like NRJ and so
on, because their "message" is politically correct. In my opinion the
music is better than the lyrics, and they aren't the best around, but
I'm not really into french rapping (seems strange, eh?), so I
woulnd'nt discourage (if this word exists) to go and see them.. I
don't have any info on how they are live, except the good skills of
the DJs.
Hope this helps a bit...
Daniel