With his mischievous grin and his controversial lyrics - not to mention an impressive head of dreadlocks! - 26-year-old Gynéco has established himself as one of the most colourful figures on the French music scene. What's more, the hip hop jester recently landed himself a role as 'social commentator' on a popular French TV chat show. But his new media image does not mean that the Doc's obvious music talent should be overlooked.

Doc's third album is a masterful mix of rap, zouk, salsa, groove and French chanson and his lyrics are as poetic, off-the-wall and sarcastically razor-sharp as ever. In fact, Solitaire features everything from a syncopated slow Pauvre de moi and the ironically cool L'âge ingrat to sweet'n'sour ragga West Indies, sunny 'zouk love' Les censeurs and romantic French variety Quoi qu'ils en pensent ou disent. Doc also returns to the golden age of funk Funky Maxime and serves up a dose of punchy hip hop (Flash). We caught up with the French music world's grooviest 'gynocologist' and asked him a few questions about his career to date:

RFI/Musique: In the time it's taken you to put out three albums your 'alter ego' Doc Gynéco has become a huge hit with the French media!
Doc Gynéco: Yes, it's true, Gynéco's become a media figure… pretty much in spite of himself really. It was pretty tough establishing Gynéco to begin with though because I'd invented such a strange surname. But then again it sort of suited my off-the-wall lyrics!
The thing is, when I started out in the music business I honestly never thought I'd get anywhere. I decided to make my first album a tribute to the Antilles. There are so many artists on the current scene that you don't really know that much about - you don't know where they come from or what they've been through in life. But I'm different on that score. I've always completely assumed my origins. OK, so there are some things you're not always keen on the public knowing, but then it's up to the media to talk about them in your place, isn't it?

RFI/Musique: On your first album you proclaimed that "Even if I was born here my heart belongs over there!" You've always had this very strong Antillais side to you. And it appears to have resurfaced again on your new album in the song Pauvre de moi - which seems to be a sequel to Dans ma rue …
Doc Gynéco: Yeah, Pauvre de moi carries on in the humorous vein I like to use on my lighter tracks. I'd already dealt with the same subject on Dans ma rue where I took a deliberately comic approach…

RFI/Musique: I believe you can't actually read music either…
Doc Gynéco: No, I can't. I play everything by ear and I function on gut feeling. But then when musicians come and work in the studio with you they bring their own vibes with them. There's no musician in the world who, when you explain your gimmick and everything you want done with it, won't turn round and do exactly what he wants instead. You have to take what they give you and that adds its own flavour to the end result.

RFI/Musique: There's another wonderfully funky track on your new album entitled Funky Maxime. Is this a reference to the famous luxury restaurant Maxim's?
Doc Gynéco: It's a play on words really - it's like "maxime" as in a maxim or saying but at the same time, yes, there's a luxury element associated with Maxim's, the restaurant. We've taken this really brilliant groove from the period between Chic and Shalamar, it's huge! This time round my mates said to me Go on, man, give us a really big, totally funky sound!" So I have!

RFI/Musique: That's very much your roots as well, isn't it? That's basically the music you grew up with…
Doc Gynéco: Too right it is! We had stacks and stacks of vinyl LPs at home and we'd wear them out listening to them - we fucked all the needles on the record-player we played them so much!

RFI/Musique: You can be pretty sarcastic about it too. I'm thinking of one song in particular, L'âge ingrat …
Doc Gynéco: Well that was inspired by various flings I've had with older women - you know, the more mature ladies. Because the thing I've come to realise is that older women have a lot of complexes about themselves compared to young girls. I noticed that when they took their clothes off and got naked for our sessions - modelling and painting, you know! (Laughs) - they had a lot of complexes about their bodies. I think guys that age are a bit cooler about things. Guys accept the fact they're starting to get love handles and a big stomach!

RFI/Musique: You also take a bit of a pot shot at record company directors on your new album - which is nothing new, you'd already dismissed them as "guys worth 11 centimes" on Liaisons dangereuses…
Doc Gynéco: Well, that wasn't so much to do with their physical appearance as their conservative mindsets. You know the kind of guy I mean, the sort who sits in his office all day with his thick shag-pile carpets and his lovely green pot plants. OK, so these guys can occasionally come up with exciting new acts. But frankly most of the time there's a big generation gap and I think it must be hard for some 55-year old guy who grew up with rock'n'roll to get out there and scout out the next big rap thing. But then again maybe I'm wrong, maybe they find it easy. I guess it depends on the guy. It's not so much a question of age as being passionate about what you do!

RFI/Musique: I believe your new album was partly recorded at Labomatic?
Doc Gynéco: Well, we recorded it in a lot of different studios actually. I work on my own most of the time but at the start and the end of my projects I like to get the very best musicians on board…

RFI/Musique: So that's the reason your new album opens with (French minimalist pop star) M guesting on a track called Flash?
Doc Gynéco: It was Blanc-Francart, Mr Labomatic himself, who put me in touch with the guys who guest on the new album. He's got an address book you wouldn't believe! He knows these total studio wizards, guys who've honed their talent as session musicians over years and years. I've got a real thing about live music, you know - to the point where I've often been criticised in the hip hop world for having used too many real instruments in my work. But I honestly wouldn't know how to go about making an album without real instruments - although having said that my music's always got the basic boom! boom! boom! of hip hop.

RFI/Musique: So if you don't actually make a demo tape before you start an album that means you must store everything in your head?
Doc Gynéco: Yep, I've got every song pre-recorded in my head, you know, stored up in my internal hard drive. What happens when I come up with a gimmick is I store it away in the back of my head somewhere. It's not like I can store it in a machine or anything because I haven't got the faintest idea how those things work - and I've no intention of learning either!

RFI/Musique: I believe you can't actually read music either…
Doc Gynéco: No, I can't. I play everything by ear and I function on gut feeling. But then when musicians come and work in the studio with you they bring their own vibes with them. There's no musician in the world who, when you explain your gimmick and everything you want done with it, won't turn round and do exactly what he wants instead. You have to take what they give you and that adds its own flavour to the end result.

RFI/Musique: There's another wonderfully funky track on your new album entitled Funky Maxime. Is this a reference to the famous luxury restaurant Maxim's?
Doc Gynéco: It's a play on words really - it's like "maxime" as in a maxim or saying but at the same time, yes, there's a luxury element associated with Maxim's, the restaurant. We've taken this really brilliant groove from the period between Chic and Shalamar, it's huge! This time round my mates said to me Go on, man, give us a really big, totally funky sound!" So I have!

RFI/Musique: That's very much your roots as well, isn't it? That's basically the music you grew up with…
Doc Gynéco: Too right it is! We had stacks and stacks of vinyl LPs at home and we'd wear them out listening to them - we fucked all the needles on the record-player we played them so much!

RFI/Musique: I'm going to play devil's advocate here for a moment but wouldn't you say that Vaya con dios sounds a lot like L'homme qui valait dix centimes and Solitaire is very close to Caramel. Does that mean there's a real Gynéco style or are you simply repeating yourself?
Doc Gynéco: Yeah, I think there's undeniably a Gynéco style. Actually on all the tracks you mentioned everything was recorded live. On (the last album) Quality Street there was absolutely no machine programming whatsoever. It's classic Gynéco, you know, the stuff I know how to do because I'm like everyone else in that respect- I've got my own little sphere I excel in!

RFI/Musique: You've experimented with other styles too though, haven't you? There's a superb song on your new album entitled Quoi qu'ils en pensent which doesn't sound hip hop at all. It's more like classic French variety …
Yes, I think you could easily classify that as variety. But then I need that sometimes..

RFI/Musique: What, you mean you need to open yourself up to other musical horizons?
Doc Gynéco:Yes, I need to reach out and do other things sometimes, rather than sticking within the rap universe all the time. I've got absolutely no desire to turn out a 100% hip hop album. When I'm working with my mates on the French hip hop scene it's a different story, of course. When Stomy (Bugsy) or Passi call me up to work on a project, they'd never let me do a track like Quoi qu'ils en pensent. (Laughs) They'd be like "Are you crazy? What do you think you're playing at?" But on my own album I can do what I like!

RFI/Musique: Is this your way of assuming the popular French culture you grew up with?
Doc Gynéco: Yes, of course it is, but I'm the only rapper who's come out and laid public claim to it so far! You won't get any other French rappers admitting that they used to watch all the crappy cartoons they put on French TV! The funny thing is, we all grew up in France but when you listen to most of these guys they act like they've just flown in from the U.S…

RFI/Musique: Whereas they grew up listening to Cloclo (Claude François) and Joe Dassin like the rest of us…
Doc Gynéco: Exactly! Look at what goes down best in terms of variety these days and you'll find that it's anything where there's an element of groove in the vocals. And what goes down best in terms of rap these days, the thing that everyone's into, is cover versions. There's a fair amount of cross-over going on there somewhere! But people involved with the variety scene are biased against the rap scene and vice versa. But mix the two together and believe me, you get a really explosive musical cocktail!

RFI/Musique: In fact, you'd be better off making your records on your own without getting involved with a bunch of hardcore rappers…
Doc Gynéco: No, I couldn't get my head round that any more really.

RFI/Musique: At the same time on your new album you claim you want to be "the first old man of French rap"!
Doc Gynéco: Well, obviously people are still going to put my albums in the rap section of record stores. But I can't say I particularly care where they go. I'd like to be everywhere at once and my music will always be present as long as there's the reality of ghettos and other stories to be told.

RFI/Musique: Is the Bruno Beausire/Doc Gynéco split a bit like Marshall Mathers/Eminem or Gainsbourg/Gainsbarre?
Doc Gynéco: (Laughs) The reason Gynéco has never been able to accept the star-system and all its trappings is because of what Bruno grew up with and the kind of education Bruno had. Gynéco comes from the street - but then at the same time people call me Bruno in the street too! I've never totally been able to escape from my past, you know.

RFI/Musique: But what's impressive is that you don't really seem to have changed that much over the past seven years…
Doc Gynéco: I guess you could say that. I've always been a bit annoying though, even if I used to be a bit shy. The thing is, I've always been the 'little brother' or the mascot of the gang really. And I think that being the first to succeed helped me keep my feet on the ground. I honestly never thought I'd be a big hit in the music world. I made my first album for my own enjoyment really.
But things turned out OK for me - and for my mates too! I've always been a big fan of what my friends do and I didn't really understand why after Première Consultationwe didn't get together and do a collective album as Ministère A.M.E.R.* But that was a totally selfish reaction. I understood that the others wanted to work on their own solo albums first.

RFI/Musique: Do you have any plans to make a collective album bringing together all the stars from the French Antilles?
Doc Gynéco: You'd have to get Jacob Desvarieux and all the musicians from Kassav on board not to mention Janik, Malavoi and everyone… We'd have to get everyone together and do something really good like they did in the 80s. After all, let's not forget that the very first group I saw in my life was Kassav at Le Zénith!

DOC GYNÉCO Solitaire Virgin Records