Alaclair Ensemble

Alaclair Ensemble is a Canadian hip hop musical collective. 
The group consists of Ogden "Robert Nelson" Ridjanovic (rapper), Akena "KNLO" Okoko (rapper & producer), Claude Bégin (rapper, singer, producer, musician), Eman (rapper) and Vlooper (producer). Most band members reside in Montreal or Quebec. Like several other hip hop collectives, the members also release music with their own side projects in addition to their collaborations as a band.
Musical concept.
The band's concept is based around an alternate history in which the Patriotes won the Lower Canada Rebellion of 1838 and established a state based on the Declaration of Independence of Lower Canada. Their musical style draws on traditional Québécois folk music as well as contemporary hip hop and electronic music. In the band's Bas-Canada mythology, the nation suffers none of the linguistic tensions between anglophones and francophones that exist in contemporary Quebec and Canadian society, and the band performs lyrics in both languages.
History.
The collective was initially formed in Quebec City, after several of the members had participated in Bande à part's "93 tours" project in 2007. They released their debut album on Bandcamp in 2010. The group's 2013 album "Les maigres blancs d'Amérique du Noir", whose title is a satirical pun on Pierre Vallières' Quebec revolutionary manifesto "Les nègres blancs d'Amérique", was a longlisted nominee for the 2013 Polaris Music Prize. Their follow-up album, "Toute est impossible", was released in 2014. In 2016, signed to Disques 7ième Ciel, the band launched their first priced album, "Les Frères Cueilleurs". The band then went on a concert tour of Quebec and parts of Europe.
The album "Le sens des paroles" was released in 2018. The album's lyrics are more serious than those of their earlier work, which was often tongue-in-cheek.
In 2021 Claude Bégin was a competitor in the Quebec edition of "Big Brother Célébrités".